Cross My Heart, and Hope to Die
by Firestar9mm
Summary: When Mia travels to Toyama to help an acquaintance of her grandfather's with a research project, it seems like the perfect excuse for a reunion. But no good deed goes unpunished, and the Ronin Warriors are about to find that out the hard way.
1. Crystal Ball, Save Us All

**Author's Introduction:**

Hi, I'm Star. Those of you who know me, uh oh! Here comes the massive chaptered Ronin fanfic I've been threatening to write for some time.

Those of you who _don't_ know me…I want this to be love at first sight.

I began drafting this fic in May 2007, when Ty-Chou told me about the Boys of Summer Art Challenge, and I realized I'd always wanted to write a big, structured, chaptered Ronin Warriors fanfic, do it properly, you know, with a big plot and lots of action. Once I got the idea to do such a thing, my head was completely taken over, like a nest with a cuckoo in it. Now, so many months later, I'm thrilled to share the results of my efforts. I worked _very_ hard on this, and whether anyone likes it or not, it's a labor of love and I am very proud of it!

As with all of my work for the past seven years or so, this would not have happened without my best friend **Cloudwalker**. Being my best friend includes but is not limited to being forced to beta-read my stories. So far, she has coped with this like a champion. I have faith that if I ever create fic that is too terrible to read, she will knock me unconscious with a Wiffle-ball bat before I can do harm to myself or others.

Also, big snaps go to the lovely ladies of Team Ronin, who you can find right here at fanfiction dot net—**Boggy**, **Seinasu**, **Max the Bish Deliverer **and **Ally W**. If you're looking for quality fic, complete with plot, story structure and a true understanding of our beloved characters, that doesn't assault you with pawsore plot devices and virulent Mary Sues, you need to check these ladies out.

**Some things:**

I love _canon_. I **_always_** try my best to keep everything as in-character, in-canon, as honest and believable as I can, because I love these characters and I love their story. Of course I want to do the right thing by my friends! So if anyone sees any major, glaring errors or something they think can be improved, please feel free to tell me so! I love discussion and constructive feedback. But please keep it _constructive_. That means no unreasonable ranting. This story holds a very special place in my heart and ranks among my most serious efforts. But it's not the negative I'm really concerned with; if you're having fun with it, tell me so—entertainment's what we aim for around here.

A quote from a very intelligent ficmistress named **Krin**, who you can also find right here at fanfiction dot net: **"For the love of all things fanfiction, demand quality from authors."** She's right. I can only hope I've done myself honor with this story.

If you like, you can even have a look at my Ronin Warriors fanart in my DeviantART gallery: http: / firestar9mm (dot) deviantART (dot) com.

Okay, for real now, I'm shutting up, here's the first chapter. (waves her replica of the Halo no-dachi and charges into battle.) **_Because the Ancient One said I could, dammit!_**

* * *

**Cross My Heart, And Hope To Die**

_A Ronin Warriors fanfiction by Firestar9mm_

* * *

**Chapter One: Crystal Ball, Save Us All**

* * *

_Oh, crystal ball, crystal ball__  
Save us all__  
Tell me life is beautiful  
Mirror, mirror, on the wall  
__Oh, crystal ball, hear my song fading out  
__Everything I know is wrong  
__So put me where I belong_

(**Keane, _Crystal Ball_)**

* * *

If Mia Koji had had a crystal ball that could show her the future, she'd have slammed the phone right back down in the cradle.

That being said, if she'd had a crystal ball that could show her the future, she probably wouldn't have chased a boy and a tiger through the streets of Toyama, and one of the coolest stories ever might not have happened.

As it was, she didn't have a crystal ball. So when the phone rang early that morning, all she felt was a slight frisson of irritation that the sound had interrupted that nice dream about taking the champagne bubble bath. Rolling through the tangled bedclothes, she thrust an arm towards the nightstand and fumbled for the receiver. "H'lo?"

The voice was entirely too cheerful for the early hour. "_Ms. Koji? Mia Koji?_"

Mia ran a hand through her sleep-tousled red hair and curled around the phone, trying to remember if that was her name. "Mm."

Even if she hadn't been able to remember, all she would have had to do was open one of the books on the shelf above the desk. Any reader could have turned to the back dust jacket in either of the two volumes and seen her smiling face, followed by this text:

**_It seems inevitable that Mia Koji would become a well-known storyteller, having spent her youth studying ancient history as research assistant to her grandfather, a respected instructor at Japan's Shinsai University. Now, the student becomes the teacher, drawing on that background as well as her own extensive travels to pen powerful, imaginative tales of legends brought to life. Born and raised in France, Ms. Koji now resides just outside of Toyama, Japan, a beloved and familiar locale for her novels._**

As of right now, there were two novels on the shelf, but Mia's cheerful attitude was that there was plenty of space for more, and she couldn't wait to get started. Notes for a third novel were already scattered across the desk, covered in her curly script, underlined, circled, connected by arrows. Her friends often joked that Mia's notes must have resembled the inside of her mind.

"_Ms. Koji, my name is Hiro. Hiro Imamura_. _You probably don't remember me._"

Mia didn't function well on not enough sleep, despite all the practice she'd had in years past. She closed her eyes and rested her cheek against the receiver, her mind spinning in a slot-machine-like catalogue of all the men she knew who might be the one on the other end of the line.

"_I taught alongside your grandfather, at Shinsai University?_"

Mia's mental roulette clunked to a halt on a boyishly handsome face, messy brown hair, kindly blue eyes. She remembered a man walking alongside her grandfather on the paths of Shinsai, slim without being skinny, like a marathon runner, hands gesticulating wildly in animated conversation with the older man. "Yes, I do remember! It's been so long, I'd nearly forgotten, but to this day I've never met anyone with such an excellent memory for mythological animals. It's nice to hear from you, Mr. Imamura."

"_Come on, Ms. Koji, it's just Hiro,_" he laughed. "_I hope you don't mind me calling—I found your number in the directory and hoped you hadn't moved. Please allow me to extend my deepest sympathies about your grandfather. He was a brilliant man, and an excellent colleague. The world is a poorer place without him._"

Mia sighed, smiling fondly as she remembered the old man who'd made this life she'd grown so accustomed to possible. "Thank you."

Hiro continued. "_On a happier note, I must congratulate you on how well-received your books are. I'll admit I haven't had the chance to read them myself, but the reviews are glowing. You must be very proud. I hope you're doing as well as the articles make it sound!_"

Ah, _that_ question. There was no easy way to say, "_Oh, I'm great—when the earth isn't about to be overrun by dark forces and my friends aren't getting kidnapped and spirited away to the four corners of the planet, I'm doing just fine,_" but nothing else sounded nearly as interesting when you got right down to it.

"I'm…super," she said lamely. "I'm working on my notes for a new book, and it's promising to be very interesting. I hope the readers will agree," she laughed. "What about you? Didn't you end up teaching at a university in the city?"

"_Yes_," he said. "_I was offered a position teaching comparative religion and I'm really enjoying it._"

Bits and pieces were coming back to Mia. Hiro had been a nice guy, very bright, and when he got started on a subject he was interested in, you couldn't get him to stop talking. Even the most reticent student would find themselves getting involved in his lessons, and he wasn't the sort of teacher who would let a handful of more outspoken students carry the class—he got everyone involved as best he could. Dr. Koji had respected Hiro, saying that he had an engaging teaching style, and with the right focus could become an authority in his chosen field.

"_Your grandfather was so proud of you, Ms. Koji, and I know he'd only be prouder seeing your recent successes_," Hiro continued.

"That's so kind of you, Hiro, but please, call me Mia." Mia yawned, tugging on the strap of her nightgown, which had fallen over one pale shoulder. "What can I help you with today?"

"_Oh, jeez, I've woken you up. I'm sorry_," Hiro said. "_Yes, actually, there is something you can help me with, if you don't mind. Bear in mind, this is a big favor I'm about to ask you, and you are free to say no._"

"Oh," Mia said, blinking, her curiosity piqued. "I'd be happy to help if I can. What's the favor?"

Hiro took a breath. "_Actually, Mia, it involves some notes I'm drafting for a book myself! I'm trying to publish some of my research, and I had planned at the start of my work to eventually cite your grandfather, Dr. Koji, as a source. It grieves me that he's no longer here to consult with, but I would be remiss not to include the influence his research has had on my work. As his research assistant, I remember how familiar you were with his work, and you're the only one who can promise the level of accuracy his input would have given my work._"

Overwhelming nostalgia for those days with her grandfather overtook Mia. "You don't have to ask me twice, Hiro. I'd be happy to help you however I can. What's your book about?"

"_You will?_" Hiro sounded as if he hadn't believed she'd say yes. "_Mia, that's wonderful! I can't thank you enough. I don't want to take up your time trying to explain it on the phone, but would you be available to meet me on my campus? I know it's a bit of a trip for you, but I'd really appreciate it. I promise not to take up too much of your time._"

Mia smiled sleepily. "Actually, I could use a trip. There's a friend I could drop in on."

"_All right! You're great. I owe you for this, I really do._" Hiro's joy radiated down the line as he gave her directions to the campus."_How's next Saturday evening?_"

"Should be good. Is there a number where I can reach you in case something changes?"

He gave it to her, babbling his thank-yous. "_You are great. This is going to be such a big help to me. Thank you, Mia, thank you so much—_"

"You're welcome, Hiro. Y—Hiro, you're _welcome_. Really!" Mia laughed, her head beginning to throb with the stress of premature wakefulness. Finally, she managed to get him to hang up.

Flopping back down onto the pillows, Mia let out her breath in a _whoosh_, eyes sliding closed, the phantom taste of dream champagne still on her tongue. Maybe she could get the dream back, spend a couple more hours in luxury before she really ought to get up. The best part of living alone was that there was no one around to tell you what to do. You didn't have to get up and make sure the coffee was on, and the only person you had to look after was yourself.

A growl and a gentle tug at her bedsheets roused her from her thoughts.

She smiled. Well, she didn't live _entirely_ alone.

Turning her head on the pillow, she said, "Oh, quit your bitching. It's not Ryo's fault the city doesn't allow pets—especially big pets. Don't you want him to graduate?" Sitting up, she ruffled the fur between the ears of a massive white tiger, and the beast's brown eyes slit in contentment.

"Want some water?" she asked. "Maybe a walk before breakfast?"

A rumbling growl answered her, not quite a purr, but something happy. A striped tail flicked back and forth, playing peek-a-boo behind the big cat's broad shoulders.

"Sound good?" she said, stretching her arms over her head and smiling down at her furry friend. "Sounds good to me too."

When Ryo Sanada had moved to Toyama to attend college, he wasn't able to take his pet, White Blaze, with him—the city had a law against pets, and besides, there was no way he was going to pass a massive Himalayan tiger off as a really, really big tabby. Besides, it wouldn't have been fair to coop the big cat up in an apartment all day. He needed room to run and a place that wouldn't collapse under the utility bill from all the water he drank.

Ryo had called her with the words she loved to hear—"_Mia, can you help?_"—and just like that she'd had a big, furry housemate. In truth, it was less that she was doing the favor for Ryo and more that he was doing _her_ a favor—she welcomed the big cat's company, especially when the house had felt bigger and emptier than ever before.

Mia often frowned at other people when they complained about their problems. Exams could be studied for and cars could be repaired, but saving the world and no one remembering it—_that_ was a bitch.

And yet, her boys had eased back into a semblance of normal living with barely a ripple. She was so proud of the ferocity with which they'd sought out their next great adventure—making lives for themselves. She'd waved her goodbyes, she'd wished them well, and she'd tried to calm her sickly pounding heart and get used to the fact that they would forget about her.

To her extreme surprise and delight, they hadn't. Not at all.

Living alone had never bothered her after that—her phone rang off the hook with questions, problems, invitations. It didn't matter that no one remembered but them—_they_ remembered, and they were stuck together now, for better or worse. A team—a family.

Thinking about a gentle old man long dead, she was achingly grateful to be part of a family, especially one as special as hers.

As if hearing her thoughts, White Blaze put two big paws on the side of the bed and thrust his head close to hers to give her a big, sloppy kiss.

Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she smiled and said, "I love you, too. Come on, White Blaze. Let's go out."

* * *

"Don't buy that one," a blue-haired boy remarked conversationally to the guy on the other side of the counter, not looking up from the comic book he was reading. "It bites."

Arching a brow at the boy, the customer slowly put the comic he'd been thumbing through back on the rotating rack and reached for another one.

"That one too," the blue-haired boy said, still not looking up, as if some sixth sense had alerted him to the poor quality of the customer's choice. "That one sucks."

The customer paused to frown at the boy before turning on his heel and leaving the store, the bell above the door managing to sound offended.

Once it was safe to express his pleasure at his handiwork, the blue-haired boy grinned, propping his worn Converse All-Stars up on the counter and opening a _Patlabor_ novel. He sighed contentedly. It was hard to protect the unsuspecting patron from truly bad books, but a hero's work was never done.

"Rowen!" a voice called angrily from the back of the store, having heard the bell above the door announcing yet another customer's furious exit. "Office!"

Rowen Hashiba rolled his eyes as he tossed his comic book back beneath the counter. His boss was so full of it—the "office" was nothing more than a closet at the back of the store. There was barely enough room in there for the rickety card table he called a desk.

Vaulting gracefully over the counter, Rowen sauntered back towards the closet, hands in the pockets of his acid-washed jeans. "Y'wanted t'see me, Chief?" he asked, affecting a casual air despite the cramped space. Had Rowen not been quite so slim, he might not have fit in the room at all; as it was, he bumped his elbow on the doorframe and regretted rolling the sleeves of his pullover up.

Rowen's boss was overweight, and despite his efforts to look professional in a tie and shirtsleeves, the sweatstains beneath his ham-like arms sort of ruined the effect. Bugs Bunny grinned from the fat man's tie in a manner that was totally at odds with his screaming face. "That's it, Rowen! Your job is to _sell_ the books, not discourage customers."

Rowen pulled at a blue forelock. "But Chief, I can't just sit idly by an' watch some poor unsuspectin' person buy a copy of _Vampire Hunter D_. Th' romantic subplot is totally tacked on, an' that's crap. It'd have been a really cool story if they'd just let th' leads keep on fightin' wit each otha. It's my duty as a purveyor of good comic books to try'n sell'em somethin' decent, like _Chicago_."

A pudgy finger pointed like a pistol in Rowen's face. "What have I told you about being a smartass?"

Rowen arched a blue eyebrow and guessed. "Don't be a smartass?"

"You're _fired_," was the roar that followed Rowen out of the office. While he was grateful to get out of the enclosed space, the blue-haired boy felt the need to snatch a copy of _Ranma ½ _ from a customer's hand. "Don't read that! It's crap." Pausing at the door, he stretched his arms out and announced dramatically to the scattered customers, "Don't read these books! They're nothin' but a buncha overly dramatic, forcibly romantic, oversexed, badly drawn crap."

At the sound of this speech, the customers attacked the shelves with renewed energy, searching for the books Rowen had described.

"Philistines!" the blue-haired boy screamed, slamming the door with such force that the little bell fell from its hook and jingled to the floor.

Stretching his arms behind his head, Rowen sighed, expelling his frustration along with his breath, and began the long trudge home. He didn't mind that he'd lost yet another job—he didn't really need the money anyway—but now what was he going to do with himself for the rest of the summer break?

* * *

Kento Rei Fuan never could turn down a damsel in distress.

"Please?" she begged, her small hands wrapping around his muscular forearm and pulling. Tears sparkled in her big eyes, but she was bravely trying not to let them fall.

Kento couldn't ignore her tragedy, knowing how important it was to her. He gave her an encouraging smile and a wink. Taking one of her tails of dark hair and tugging gently, he said, "Leave it to me."

While reconnaissance was not Kento's strong point, it was but the work of a minute to size up the situation. His opponent stood close by, the kidnap victim clutched in one hand, his back carelessly turned as he considered his victory already won.

Sneaking up behind, Kento tapped his younger brother's shoulder. As the boy's attention turned away from his captive—a small doll—Kento plucked it easily out of his hand.

Mei Ryu whirled, face stormy as he realized he'd been tricked. Putting a hand on the smaller boy's shoulder, Kento smiled down at the angry face. "How many times do I have to tell you?" he said, but not unkindly. "Don't take your sister's toys. You wouldn't like it if she did it to you. Tell her you're sorry."

Mei Ryu scuffed a foot along the floor and made a derisive sound.

Kento arched his eyebrows towards the tearful girl, clearing his throat.

Children's apologies are interesting things, usually delivered under extreme duress and with the stamp of a foot, rushed from the mouth as if they need to be over as fast as possible. "Didn't mean to make you cry," the boy burst out. "Sorry." Then he took off, away from the proof of his hurtful action and the gentle scolding of his elder brother.

Kento chuckled. As small boys' apologies went, that one had been better than most. Besides, he had the power to make the last pain of the incident disappear; he winked once more at the girl and held her doll out to her.

Chun Fa lit up, hands reaching out eagerly for her toy. She hugged it to her, swinging her shoulders back and forth with the energy of happiness and beaming through the tears still wet on her face. "Thank you, Kento."

"Don't let Mei Ryu boss you around," Kento advised, petting his sister's dark hair. "'Kay, pretty?"

Chun Fa tugged on his arm once more, and he bent to hear the secret. Thrusting her little face close to his ear, the girl whispered, "You're my hero." Then she danced off, reunited with her dolly once again.

The Warrior of Hardrock grinned. Another crisis averted, and there had been no need to draw a weapon. All in a day's work.

* * *

The bokken whistled neatly through the air, but the sound didn't thrill the swordmaster the way it had in seasons past. Wooden swords were no substitute for shining metal, and no matter how good he was at sport, it wasn't his very own blade and that was that. He marveled at his own loneliness for his weapon, like a child missing his favorite toy.

Still, there was no need for enchanted swords, not this day. The air was sweet and still with warmth, and a drowsy peacefulness hung over the estate.

His grip on the practice sword relaxed as he tried to figure out why it wasn't enough, why the days dragged interminably hot and the nights were filled with restlessness and sleep, when it came, was empty and dreamless.

The swordmaster's thoughts were interrupted by a thump from outside and a discordant jangle that rippled over his enhanced senses almost painfully. Nerves standing suddenly on end, he gripped the bokken tightly and slid the door back. Habit made his feet soundless and his breath slow as he approached the source of the disturbance, until he saw what had caused the noise.

A child was sitting in her own surprise on the ground, a broken string and a clapper in her hand. Fearful eyes were cast up at the rest of the chime she'd been pulling at, which still swung with leftover kinetic energy, unable to ring without the clapper.

The little girl's face paled at the sight of the tall swordmaster standing over her, ethereal in his snow-white haori, the wooden sword held at the ready. "I didn't mean it," she promised, her voice loud with apprehension.

Instead of scolding, the swordmaster tossed his head, making sure a thick lock of his blond hair obscured one violet eye, and dropped gracefully to one knee. All he said was, "That sounded like a nasty fall, Hana. Are you hurt?"

The girl's face blossomed into a shy smile. "No, Sage. Not hurt." She jumped to her feet and executed a little twirl for his benefit, skirts flaring around her, dark hair swinging. "See?"

Satisfied, he nodded at the child, his grip on the bokken relaxing once more as he rose to his feet. "Very good. Why were you playing with the chimes?"

She looked at him as though he were very silly. "It's the first day of _summer_. Don't you know _anything_, Sage?" She giggled. "I wanted to celebrate!"

"One season, another, it makes no difference to me," he sighed.

"Of _course_ it doesn't," the child said, dimpling at him. "You're a grown-up."

"Am I?" he said idly, leaning one strong shoulder against the wall. "I don't feel like one sometimes."

The child eyed the wooden sword he held. "Sage, how come you don't go to school like my brother?"

"Well, I'm all done with that sort of schooling," he said.

"Why don't you play with the wooden swords anymore?" she asked, nodding towards the practice sword.

"Because I'm too old for that sort of playing," he answered patiently.

"Why haven't you got a wife?" was the child's next question.

Nettled, the blond boy blinked his visible eye sharply. "I—well—Hana, where is your mama?"

"Mama is home with the baby," the girl said. She glanced down at the clapper she still held, broken string trailing from it. "The chimes," she whispered fearfully.

He took the clapper and string from her. "They're only things, Hana. Things can be fixed. I'll see that the chimes are repaired."

The girl scuffed a shoe absently along the ground. "I didn't even get to ring them."

The swordmaster's lilac eyes glanced from the chimes to the child and back again. He smiled slightly, the barest quirk of his lips upward. He placed the wooden sword to one side, propping it against the wall he'd been leaning on. It was but the work of a minute to lift the child so that she was eye level with the chimes. "Go ahead, but gently," he cautioned.

She beamed, hands playing carefully over the chimes so that they sang their tune out into the warm summer air.

When he let her down, she boldly clasped one of his large hands in both of her small ones. "Happy summer, Sage."

He smiled, patting her head. "Happy summer, Hana."

Watching the child run off, he figured he'd best return the bokken to where it belonged, and distract himself from the question of where _he_ belonged.

* * *

Ryo Sanada leveled a hateful gaze at his adversary, tiger-blue eyes burning beneath his tangle of dark hair.

"_Never_," he said flatly. "I'll _never _do what you want me to do."

The flare and passion of Wildfire, unfortunately, was entirely wasted on Professor Takegi. The teacher sighed heavily, tilting his small-framed spectacles so that they flashed reflected light briefly at Ryo. "Mr. Sanada, surely you realize that in pursuit of a study in any form of biology, you would have to dissect an organism at some point?"

Ryo's gaze never wavered for an instant, and when he spoke his voice dripped with red liquid anger. "_Dissect_. Not _euthanize_."

Professor Takegi sighed again, steepling his fingers. He was used to students coming in and protesting dissection study. Normally, they ranted and screamed and thrust independent literature under his nose. One plucky young lady had gone so far as to simply smuggle an entire shipment of frogs out of the laboratory before they could be used. But this young man…there was a heaviness to his ferocity, a permanence. His voice was choked by the blood his heart shed for the animals they wanted him to harm.

The trouble had started when the professor had announced that the final project would consist of euthanizing and dissecting _felis domesticus_. Ryo Sanada, a normally quiet and unobtrusive presence save for the occasional unexplainable mishap with a Bunsen burner, had…well, flipped out.

He'd flatly refused to do the assignment, and he'd worked himself into such a state that Takegi had removed him from the laboratory so as not to disturb the other students. But he couldn't seem to get it through the boy's head that he would fail the course if he didn't comply.

"Mr. Sanada," the professor tried again. "Rumor has it that you have an interest in pursuing veterinary studies. Should you choose to do that, you must be aware of the fact that you will _have_ to euthanize animals every so often."

Ryo's teeth gritted bright in his tanned face. "That…is…_different_," he grated. "Those animals are _sick_, or they're _hurt_—they're _suffering_. You stop them running so they don't hurt anymore. Euthanizing animals so you can grade us on how we cut them _open_ isn't like that. I won't do it."

Takegi glanced at his grade book. "You're doing very well in my class, Ryo. You're very bright, and you have a good grasp of the material. I'd hate to have to fail you over something like this."

The boy's eyes were full of a memory of a suffering, dying animal, a broad tongue caressing his face in farewell before a miracle occurred to bring him back to life. "I'm not killing an innocent cat," he stated, in a tone that discouraged further debate.

Professor Takegi had to admire his student's conviction. The boy was angry not because of social causes or popular opinion, but because he, Ryo, felt strongly about this.

"Okay, Mr. Sanada," the professor said, a hint of a smile playing around his lips. "I had originally planned to give a written exam and a practical lab exercise in place of this project. If you're willing to take a ten-point deduction for failure to comply with the curriculum, I'll let you do that exam and lab exercise in place of the dissection. Do we have a deal?"

Ryo's strong shoulders relaxed fractionally as he nodded. "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

Takegi stabbed the air between them with a warning finger. "Now, if anyone asks, you objected for religious reasons. Got that?"

Ryo didn't smile; he pulled at the collar of his long-sleeved shirt uncomfortably; his throat tightening as he swallowed. He glanced back in the direction of the lab where the dissections were taking place. "May I take my test somewhere else please?" he asked softly, his eyes still tiger-striped with the memory of the friend he'd nearly lost so long ago.

* * *

Mia secretly hated cooking for herself alone. She liked cooking and was good at it, but it was just no fun when there was no one to enjoy it but her.

So she'd taken to sharing the results of her efforts with her houseguest, and sometimes she felt she'd never been more appreciated in her entire life.

"Ahi tuna," she sang, kneeling on the dining room floor and sliding a plate to her friend. "I hope it's not too much ginger for you!"

The ginger didn't seem to bother White Blaze, who tore into his meal with gusto, fangs flashing. "Hey!" Mia said, pretending to be insulted. "_Sensible_ bites! I _seared_ that, you know—it was a labor of love! I swear, sometimes you're as bad as Kento!"

White Blaze took a moment to lift his head from the steak and lick her face, his chest rumbling with a growl that Mia had come to identify as a laugh due to the happy note it held.

"Uck! I _did_ use too much ginger," Mia laughed. "Oh well."

Seating herself in front of her own portion, she picked up her fork in one hand and reached to scratch White Blaze's ears with the other, hooking her feet around the legs of her chair. "I'm spoiling you, you know," she said around a mouthful of tuna steak. "When Ryo sees you again, he'll wonder how you got so big and why regular food doesn't impress you any more!"

White Blaze's tail twitched happily at the thought of Ryo.

Mia sighed in answer. "Another season come and gone. You think Ryo's classes went okay?"

A very determined short growl.

Mia smiled. "I'm sure they did too. You know how the guys are—no matter what, they're always going to be all right." Turning in her chair, she offered a piece of her steak to White Blaze, who was happy to share it with her. When both their plates were empty, the tiger sat contentedly at Mia's feet, licking his chops.

She stroked the big cat under his chin. "Your compliments to the chef, eh?" she laughed. "I'm glad you liked it." Her voice held the slightest note of pain. She missed her boys—missed having a house full of people, crazy laughter-filled dinners and just enough food for everybody instead of way too much for one person.

As if sensing his friend's distress, White Blaze pushed his head into her lap, asking for pets.

"What'll we have for dessert?" she wondered aloud, stroking his soft ears. "There's ice cream. Would you like that?"

A lick to her hand told her he'd like that very much.

* * *

Somewhere on the busy evening streets, Rowen lay on a park bench, watching night fall. He just didn't feel like going back to an apartment that would most likely be empty. Sure, he didn't know any of the people passing by on the sidewalks he trod, but at least he felt a little less alone when he was in a crowd, regardless of how small a part he was of it. Lots of people were out on this warm night, one for every star that was twinkling above him.

_Damn light pollution,_ he thought idly, folding his hands behind his head on the bench, his arms bent at the elbow to form wings as he squinted through the glow of the streetlamps, trying to focus on the diamond-studded dark beyond. He could barely see anything for the haloes of artificial brightness that glittered and pulsed over the city.

Such was human nature, the blue-haired boy mused, to fear the dark—to beat it back with electricity and flame instead of looking up and seeing the amazing heavens.

Frustration slowly ebbed away, and an odd sense of calm stole over Rowen. He would _always_ be Strata, no matter what happened. He would always be attuned to the majesty of the heavens, would always be able to look beyond artificial glow and human fear to see the fantastic. Even now, he could pick out the cold light of stars in the rapidly falling dark, and he knew he was part of something that would never pass away.

Rowen of Strata closed his eyes, wondering what stars his friends were under this night.

* * *

Despite his victory in biology class, Ryo returned to his apartment in a low mood.

He didn't understand why he was so out of place at school—and everywhere else on earth; why nothing seemed to make sense to him. There was always the hint that he was behaving like a fool for some reason; he'd gotten used to the professors frowning exasperatedly at him and the other students snickering about him behind his back. He'd thought he was too old for this sort of thing, but college was turning out to be just like high school without the zits.

It wasn't that he loved risking his life and being locked in bloody battle. But when the going was rough and others were looking at him to step up and be leader, he was useful; hand him a katana and he was golden, but put him in a chemistry lab or a literature class and Ryo Sanada was a klutz. He dropped things, he spilled things. He couldn't sit still, couldn't articulate his thoughts. His pens and pencils always rolled off his desk. At least when he was getting KO'd by nightmare apparitions from beyond the mortal realm, he didn't feel like such a…_loser_.

Coming home to the empty apartment got a little worse every day. He'd thought that once he'd fulfilled his destiny and things had returned to normal, he'd feel like it was happily-ever-after. He hadn't expected this full-scale…loneliness.

He was picking up the phone almost before he'd shut the door, looking for the one place he knew would always welcome him with open arms.

* * *

The heat of the early summer night had the ice cream melting into bowls of vanilla sweetness when the phone rang. Mia flopped onto the sofa, picking up the cordless phone from its place on the end table as she bounced on the cushions. "Hello?"

"_Excuse me, ma'am_," a voice said. "_I'm having a huge problem with my mystical armor, and I was wondering if you knew anything about long-dead legends?_"

She grinned against the mouthpiece. "Go to hell, Sanada."

But the curse was a loving one. There were lots of things that made life worth living, like chocolate-chip cookies, early morning sunlight, and friends—and as friends went, Mia knew she couldn't ask for better ones.

"_Mia? Space to Mia!_" Ryo laughed. "_This is Mission Control. Come in. Did I lose you?_"

"Never, promise," she said, settling back onto the sofa. "What's new? How'd your biology final go?"

"_Aaaargh, don't ask,_" Ryo chuckled. "_I had to refuse to take it. The professor let me do a makeup, but it was hard. I think my straight B average is in danger of becoming a C._"

"Ryoooo," Mia said warningly. "I don't want to hear about you refusing to take exams."

He laughed, as if he welcomed the scolding. "_Come on, Mia. It was the principle of the thing._"

Mia knew her friend too well. He sounded almost relieved to be talking to her, even though he was carefully avoiding what was bothering him. "You okay?" she asked gently.

Silence for a minute, then Ryo sighed on the other end of the line. "_How's my big cat?_" he asked.

Mia smiled at the big cat in question, who was lapping almost daintily at a bowl of ice cream across the room. "Ask him yourself. Hold on a second." Leaning over the side of the sofa, she waved the receiver at White Blaze. "It's for you!" she sang. Ears perking, the tiger trotted over and Mia held the phone up to his ear.

"_Hey, White Blaze_!" Ryo said, his obvious cheer carrying easily over the line.

The tiger growled happily at the sound of the voice he loved, and Ryo laughed. "_How're you doing, buddy? I miss you!_"

White Blaze growled again. Whatever he was trying to say, Ryo seemed to understand perfectly.

"_Really? No way. You've been busy, huh? I hope you're not having too much fun without me!_ _Are you taking good care of Mia?_"

A determined growl.

Ryo laughed. "_Glad to hear it. You keep looking out for her, okay? I miss you, pal. I'll see you real soon._"

White Blaze licked the receiver and Mia laughed, wiping it off on the sofa cushion as she lifted it back to her ear. "He gives you a kiss," she reported.

Ryo chuckled. "_Give him one back for me_."

"Will do," Mia promised, kicking her feet up behind her and crossing her feet at the ankles. "Speaking of seeing him real soon, Ryo, what are you doing next week? I got a call this morning and I've got a meeting in the city this week. Feel up for a visit? Me and White Blaze would love to see you if you're not too busy."

If Ryo had sounded happier just hearing her voice and White Blaze's growls, the idea of seeing them in person sent him from zero to sixty in two seconds. "_Are you kidding? I'm never too busy for you guys! I'd love to see you. What day are you coming?_"

"Saturday," Mia said. "I can't bring White Blaze into the city, of course, but we could meet somewhere else."

"_My dad's cabin_?" Ryo suggested. "_It's outside of the city, and he can chill there while you're at your meeting. You could crash there as long as you wanted, and you and me could hang out_."

"Great!" Mia said, feeling much better about the fact that she had to travel all the way into the city for a meeting. "I'm looking forward to it."

White Blaze interrupted with the happy growl, putting two big paws on the sofa and thrusting his head close to the receiver.

"He is, too!" Mia laughed, and Ryo echoed it.

* * *

_In the dream, Cye Mouri was swimming. The water was a sparkling blue-green jewel, surrounding him on all sides, promising space to move in for as far as his eyes could see. His senses stretched to experience the octaves of differing temperature in the water, see the path of the moon and stars above him. It fit him close, closer even than his subarmor, knew him and wrapped around him as nothing else could. There were no sharp edges here, nothing bright to sting his eyes, nothing shadowy to trip him up. Here he was free._

_He wondered how the waves that were tipped with moonlight might feel when they broke over him and pushed himself higher, surfacing with a splash. The starlight was cold on his skin as if it were water itself. He exhaled, at peace with the night._

_And couldn't breathe in again._

_The beautiful night air turned deadly in the space of a heartbeat—it chased down his throat into his lungs with a cold fire, filling him with pain. His hands clawed at empty space and he barely had time to realize that he was drowning, that everything hurt and there was no place to run. His lungs full of heavy oxygen, he sank back beneath the water, which had turned dark and unforgiving as it folded him in its embrace for the last time._

Cye woke in a cold sweat, whooping in air. His sheets were tangled around his chest and they felt rough against his hands as he batted them away. His skin felt hyper-sensitized, making everything uncomfortable, even the air around him scraping against his flesh. That nightmare again.

It seemed so unnatural for Torrent to dream of drowning, but it was the air that choked his throat, not the water. How he hated going back and forth—how he wished he could just _be_, and not have to choose where he felt right.

* * *

The last week of work went by in a blur for Mia—without any concrete knowledge of what Hiro Imamura's book was going to be about, she set about familiarizing herself with as much of her grandfather's work as she could in preparation for their meeting. She wasn't even sure how she could contribute, so she was hoping to arm herself with as much knowledge as possible.

If Mia was excited to see Ryo, White Blaze was ten times more so. Over the week, he'd spent nights running up and down the stairs and through the halls in a frenzy of anticipation, and Mia hadn't the heart to scold him for the tufts of carpet his claws had torn up. He was as exuberant as a kitten, and on the Friday night before they were to leave, he raced into the kitchen, paws slipping on the recently-mopped floor, shoulder slamming clumsily into a cabinet. Mia hid a giggle behind her hand and knelt down to be on his level. "All right, you, enough running around. Bedtime for big kitty." Ruffling his fur, she recited something her grandfather had often told her when she was a little girl. "The faster we go to sleep, the faster tomorrow comes. We're leaving early, so we better rest up. Come on, I'll race you!"

White Blaze galloped towards the master bedroom, and when she caught up with him he was already curled up on the throw rug she kept for him, showing her how good he could be. Grinning, Mia dropped a kiss on the tiger's head before preparing for bed herself. Soon, the house was quiet, except for the soft breathing of the big cat. Mia let one hand dangle over the side of her bed to stroke him as her own eyes drifted closed and her mind wondered if she'd forgotten to pack anything.

* * *

It was still dark when a rough tongue roused her from a soft dreamscape of gentle greys.

"I'm awake," she murmured, turning her face away. But White Blaze wasn't satisfied with the answer, nuzzling into the space between her neck and shoulder, cold wet nose making her squeak and huddle away from him. When she didn't get up, he seized the bedclothes in his teeth, pulling them off of her. Mia began to shiver, and White Blaze went in for the kill, putting both big front paws on the bed and licking furiously at her face.

Mia tried to squirm away from the tongue-bath. "_No_," she giggled, opening one eye. "White Blaze—ack!" She squinted as his scratchy tongue glued her hair to her cheek.

"Okay! Okay," Mia laughed, rolling to a sitting position. "I'm up, I'm up." When she was upright, the tiger put all four paws back to the floor and picked up her duffel bag in his teeth, offering it to her.

"You don't expect me to go in my nightgown, do you?" she laughed as she took the bag from him and stroked him beneath his chin. "We'll leave as soon as I shower and dress and we have a bit of breakfast, okay? You've got a long run ahead of you—you need to eat!"

Walking to the closet, she pulled out first one, then another hanger, each containing a casual suit. Even after all these years, she still felt like her grandfather's research assistant—it was difficult for her to break out of that mentality and realize that she was her own person now, with her own body of work and a reputation of her own. She'd have preferred more comfortable clothes for such a long trip, but she had that reputation to consider and she didn't want to look inappropriate when she got to the university. She had other clothes in her duffel bag and could always change later, she reasoned.

"Which one?" she asked the tiger, displaying each suit. "The blue? Or the white?"

White Blaze shook his head, snuffling, as she held up the navy blue suit. Instead, he pawed at the shorter, pinstriped skirt of the white one. Mia smiled, considering it—there was no reason she couldn't look good, even if she did have to dress up. "You like pinstripes better?" she asked, patting him. "Good choice!"

A quick shower and a light breakfast later, they were ready to get on the road. Tossing her duffel in the back of the Jeep, Mia settled herself comfortably in the driver's seat, rolling down the window to give White Blaze one more pat before they left. "Run careful, now," she said. "I'll see you there." She gripped the steering wheel, knuckles whitening as she imagined a dragstrip lighttree in the distance. "On your mark," she called out the open window. "Get set…_go_!"

The wheels spun and squealed, then the Jeep hurtled down the drive, but the tiger was still faster, bolting across the grass.

"No fair!" Mia laughed out her window. "I have to stick to the main roads! See you there!"

Turning the Jeep towards the highway, Mia had no doubt that White Blaze would reach their destination safely, and faster than she could, too, even in her car. He was one amazing feline.

Dawn was breaking to the east, turning the sky above the manor rose and gold as the girl and the tiger set off on their way.

* * *

The Jeep seemed almost as tired as Mia was as it ambled over the uneven ground. The dark, distant mountains had seemed to be getting further away from her all morning as the sun had risen higher and higher in the sky, but now she'd caught up to them and seen the cabin standing against them. Her weariness started to ebb away, replaced by anticipation at the idea of getting out and stretching her legs in the tall grass.

Sure enough, White Blaze bounded onto the dirt road as she closed on the cabin. Grinning, Mia reached one arm clumsily out the window to ruffle his fur.

She almost hated to park the Jeep on the impossibly green grass and mar the beauty of the idyllic scene. She settled for parking at an angle a fair distance away from the actual cabin and jumped happily out to stretch her legs. White Blaze padded around to greet her. Mimicking Ryo, she tapped both hands on her chest, just below her collarbone. Taking the cue, White Blaze reared up on his hind legs and placed both paws on either side of her, resting against the Jeep.

"Good job," she cheered as he licked her face. "We made it." Reaching back into the Jeep, she came up with a bottle of water. Taking a swig for herself, she poured the rest of it out in front of the big cat's muzzle and he lapped at it greedily.

Her heels sank into the dirt as they walked towards the cabin. "I hope there's a phone in there," Mia remarked. "I didn't want to tell Ryo what time we'd be here in case we were late."

Luckily for her, the problem was solved for her before she even got to the cabin door. "You guys made great time!" a voice called from the yard. "I wasn't expecting you for at least another half hour."

White Blaze's ears perked, and Mia matched the grin of the speaker as he strolled around the corner of the house, hands in the pockets of his dark jeans. Ryo looked wonderfully familiar—he was a little more tanned beneath his dark tangle of hair, and he was a little leaner, but his tiger-blue eyes were dancing and his smile was as bright as ever. "Ryo!"

With a happy growl, White Blaze bounded towards the sound of the voice he loved and all but tackled his master. Boy and tiger fell to the ground, rolling, tussling in the grass as if they hadn't seen each other in years. Mia giggled. A boy and his pet, reunited. So what if the pet in question was a _little_ bigger than a cocker spaniel?

"I hope I get a greeting that good," she said cheerfully when Ryo had tired himself out and was kneeling by White Blaze, tickling his friend's broad paws.

"'Course you do," Ryo said, getting to his feet and scooping her up in his arms. Ryo gave great hugs—he squeezed fit to force the breath right out of you, and Mia returned the favor in kind.

"How are you doing?" she asked, even as he held her against his chest and off the ground, her feet dangling. "How was your last week of class?"

"Sucked," he said brightly. "But things are looking up already, now that you guys are here." He punctuated this with another squeeze.

She giggled and tapped his chest. "Put me down, silly."

He let her gently down and reached to pat White Blaze again. "And how've you been, buddy? You being good for Mia?"

The tiger circled Mia and butted his head affectionately against her hip, looking for a pat. She stroked his soft ears and smiled. "He's the best roommate I ever had. We get along just fine, don't we, boy?"

The tiger licked the girl's hand and nuzzled against her side again, his broad muzzle set in that serene smile.

"What a wonderful place," Mia gushed, looking at the cabin and the surrounding grounds.

Feeling warmed by the praise, especially from someone who lived on a beautiful estate, Ryo grinned. "It's home," he said happily. Then he put a hand behind his head and laughed shyly. "Unfortunately, no one's been 'home' since I moved into the city. We might want to dust the place out later."

"Later," Mia agreed. "It's too nice a day to be inside cleaning. Want to show me around?"

"After you," he said, stepping aside and smiling as he let her pass.

* * *

Sage Date was blissfully happy. It was too bad he was traveling much too fast for anyone to see the rare unguarded smile on his face.

The red Nissan Fairlady sliced through the thick summer air like a steel and chrome shark. In his secret put-away heart, Sage often thought that freedom must truly feel like this, the wind caressing his hair and the engine purring its pleasure around him. Speed promised safety, and his foot pressed harder on the pedal, willing his body to blur away until he was nothing more than the essence of flight.

He was looking forward to this trip. He'd sorely needed it. It had been almost a couple of months since he'd seen any of the guys, and even longer since he'd seen Mia—she'd been busy with teaching, and his responsibilities at the shrine and the dojo prevented him from visiting as often as the others were able to. Briefly, he was jealous of their closer proximity to each other, but he had no hope of ever moving closer. Too much was expected of him.

So when Ryo had called to tell him Mia had business in Toyama and that it might be fun to surprise her with a visit, Sage had readily agreed. The toll he'd paid was having to explain to his family where he was going—even now, his ears burned at the memory of it. He wasn't sure why he hadn't just said he was visiting Ryo, but the Ronin of Wisdom was not given to dishonesty. Before he'd thought it through, he was explaining that Ryo wanted all of the guys together to see Mia. His familiar use of the young woman's name had triggered an exchange of looks around the household, and from that point up until his departure he'd had to endure their not-low-enough stage whispering about was-that-the-girl-that-Sage-liked-so-much.

Naturally, he'd been more than happy to get out of Sendai for a while. For the life of him, he couldn't figure out why he'd let her name slip. He was stubbornly ignoring the idea that it was because he was looking forward to seeing her and his excitement had gotten the better of his judgment.

Shifting gears, he smiled at the friendly growl of his fairest lady around him. "Don't worry," he assured the car. "You're still my best girl."

The Fairlady seemed to thrill at his words, devouring the road that was separating Sage from his friends.

* * *

The ride from the opposite side of the city wasn't going quite as smoothly.

"Whoohahahahahah!" Kento grinned at one of his passengers. "You're not representing Torrent too well if _this_ little ride is getting you seasick!" He shifted gears choppily. "You're looking a little green around the gills—ha ha! Get it, Cye? Green around the gills?"

"I hate you," Cye muttered darkly, clinging to the open window of the car and trying to whoop in as much air as he could without having to see the wildly bouncing landscape.

Kento was just as proud of his wheels as Sage was, but where Sage's car had quite the pedigree, Kento's was a friendly mutt—a rugged CJ-6 that had been used for medical transport in the American service before being honorably discharged into the care of the Warrior of Hardrock. Sage had eloquently likened the CJ to a shark—not because it was fast or deadly, but because if it stopped moving, it might die. The steering column shook wildly at speeds over fifty-five, the body was peppered with dents, the bumper was rusted through on one side, and the seats weren't exactly comfortable, but the car was Kento's princess and he treated her like one.

Kento's other passenger was thoroughly enjoying the ride. In direct contrast to Cye, Rowen was bouncing happily along with the vehicle, completely impenitent about how far they'd had to drive to pick him up. He'd hit his head on the roll bar twice and didn't seem to care.

"I cannot believe he's having fun with this," Cye groaned, in misery from all the bumping and jostling.

"This is nothing," Kento said. "Remember the time he and Ully played 'Imaginary Rollercoaster'?"

Unfortunately, Cye did. After dinner at Mia's one weekend, Ully had mentioned that he'd never been on a rollercoaster before. Ryo promised their little friend they'd take him to an amusement park someday. Rowen, unwilling to wait, had another solution. Taking two of Mia's dining room chairs, the Ronin of Strata had set them up side by side, instructing Ully to sit next to him, pull down an imaginary safety bar and pretend they were on a rollercoaster. Soon, they were both throwing their hands up and screaming like they were being murdered by domestic cats, leaning from side to side to simulate centrifugal force. They pretended so well, in fact, that when the "ride" was over, Rowen had immediately collapsed to the floor and thrown up.

Cye's stomach heaved at the memory. "Just _drive_, Kento," he pleaded, gripping the window frame and closing his eyes.

* * *

Mia, Ryo and White Blaze whiled away a very pleasant afternoon in the woods surrounding the cabin.

"I have so missed this," Ryo announced, taking a deep breath of woodland air. They'd taken a rest in a large clearing a ways away from the cabin. Some seasons back, a pine tree had been struck by lightning and had fallen, making a perfect bench. Mia arranged her skirt carefully as she sat, trying not to snag it.

Ryo had elected to sit on the ground, legs stretched out, his back against the fallen pine. "You look nice," he said, smiling at Mia as she fussed with her clothes.

"Thank you," she said warmly. "White Blaze helped me pick it out."

The tiger was laying with his head in Ryo's lap, tail twitching contentedly. He growled happily at the praise. Ryo laughed. "He's got good taste."

"Oh, that's a fact," Mia laughed. "He only eats my most high-end clothing." Tilting her head in thought, she added, "By the way, you owe me a pair of Manolos."

White Blaze whipped his tail against Mia's bare legs in playful admonishment. He'd only eaten _one_ pair of shoes, and platform jellies did not taste very good.

"I'm just teasing, you big baby," Mia giggled, patting the big cat's flank. "He's such a good boy. I don't know what I'd do without him."

Ryo looked relieved. "You're a princess to take care of him while I'm at school."

Mia beamed. "Please! He takes care of _me_. He listens to me read aloud sections of my notes, he raves about my cooking, and he's the best bodyguard ever. If anyone even _thinks_ about breaking in, they'll know I mean business."

The friends shared a smile. Using the tree as leverage, Ryo braced his hands on the trunk and pushed himself to his feet. "Ready to go back?"

Jumping to her feet, Mia grinned. "I'll race you both." Giving Ryo a playful shove, she dashed across the clearing.

"No fair!" She heard Ryo laugh behind her. "That's cheating!"

With a roar, White Blaze quickly overtook the Ronin of Wildfire. Catching up to Mia just as she got to the end of the clearing, he set his teeth in her skirt and dug his paws into the earth, using his massive weight to stop her in her tracks.

"Hey!" Mia giggled as she stumbled backwards. "Okay, boy. You win!"

But the tiger only tugged harder, forcing her back a few more steps. "You're going to rip my skirt," she said, tapping his nose. "What's gotten into you?"

White Blaze let go of her skirt, circling around her to block both her path and Ryo's when he caught up.

"What's wrong?" Ryo asked, slowing his run as he reached them. "What's the matter with White Blaze?"

A warning growl trickled from the tiger's throat, but he refused to budge. "He doesn't want us to go this way," Mia said, squinting. When a passing breeze made the tall grass ripple, she saw the reason that the tiger had been so intent on stopping them—the ground sloped down at the edge of the clearing, then fell away abruptly in a wide, roughly circular drop. The sun gleamed off broken stone that had once lined the inside of the large pit.

"There's a _hole_ here!" Mia said, looking down into the dark opening in the ground. "We'd have fallen into it if we'd kept going!"

Realization dawned on Ryo as he followed her pointing finger. "It's the well," he said. "There wasn't always running water at the cabin. When my dad bought the place, he had modern plumbing installed. He said my mother was too pretty to be carrying well water all the way to the house." His tiger-blue eyes went soft and sad as he smiled at the memory. "Guess he forgot about it and never had it filled in. I wasn't allowed to play over here when I was younger—he must have been worried I'd fall in."

Mia took her friend's arm, pulling him gently away from the gaping pit. "Let's walk back," she said softly, giving his arm a little squeeze to remind him that he still had a family—it was just a little less conventional than most. White Blaze seemed to echo the sentiment, pushing his head against Ryo's hip, asking for pets.

"Good memory, boy," Ryo said, scratching White Blaze's ear. "We were almost goners there!"

The tiger snuffled, making sure his friends were well clear of the danger before he followed them, nuzzling against Ryo's side with the love-growl rumbling in his chest.

Another kind of growl sounded, and Mia clapped a hand over her stomach, embarrassed. "Oh my goodness!" she laughed. "I guess it's been longer than I thought since I've eaten."

Ryo grinned. "Supper sounds like a great idea. I'm starving. Why don't we head back into the city to eat, and then we can come back here and set you guys up?" White Blaze made a sound, and Ryo ruffled his ears. "We'll bring you a doggie bag, pal, promise."

The tiger responded with a sharp growl, and Mia laughed. "We mean, tiger bag."

* * *

After making sure White Blaze would be all right at the cabin for a few hours on his own, Mia followed Ryo's directions to his apartment in the city. After parking on a side street, they only had to walk a few blocks to their destination—a tiny, brightly lit diner that boasted twenty-four hour service and endless refills on your chosen beverage. The "I" in "Starlite" on the sign was dotted with a neon star that flashed off and on at the end of a long neon tail. Mia had to smile at how comforting it looked, shining like a beacon through the early evening light. She and the guys had kept some pretty weird schedules over the years, and she loved any place that offered sanctuary on the world's off-hours.

"This place is cute," Mia said appreciatively, looking around at the deep, comfortably scarred vinyl booths and scratched Formica tables as she followed Ryo past the hostess. "And it's really close to your apartment."

"Plus it was the best place for everyone to meet up," a voice added as two large hands covered her eyes. "Guess who, beautiful?"

Mia whooped in delight, recognizing the voice. "Kento! I didn't know you were in town!"

She turned in the cage of his arms to hug him, and he returned the favor, lifting her off the ground just as Ryo had done. He gave her a squeeze, punctuating it with a playful growl. "I missed this girl! It's been ages!" Letting her down, he held out his hand to Ryo for a low five. "C'mon, table's this way."

"You got a table already? Cool," Ryo said.

"Yeah, cause I'm such a nice guy and all," Kento chuckled.

Ryo smirked, not buying that for a second. "And let me guess, you ordered an appetizer already, too."

Kento shrugged sheepishly. "Well, I was already sitting down and I didn't want the waitress to get bored!"

Mia giggled, hooking her chin over Kento's shoulder as she walked with them to the table. "This is great. I get two Ronin for the price of one!"

"Three," a voice said from Kento's table, and the young blond man sitting there got to his feet to greet them.

Mia was surprised to see him most of all, but she overplayed it with a very dramatic gasp for his benefit. "Do my eyes deceive me?" she laughed.

"They wouldn't dare." Sage Date returned her smile. "Hello, pretty."

"Hello pretty yourself," she teased, stretching her arms out for a hug. Sage's winter-cool eyes warmed over for just a second as he allowed her to wrap herself around him and nuzzle into the shoulder of his dark sport jacket, a fact that she never took for granted—he was not a casual toucher.

"Sage!" Ryo grinned at his friend. "Glad you could make it."

"Wouldn't miss it," the blond said, shaking Ryo's hand, then pulling Mia's chair out for her before returning to his seat at the table and smoothing the lapel of his sport jacket. "Let's just say I needed to get out for a while. The others get here yet?"

"Others?" Mia asked eagerly. "Who else is coming out?"

"Neva fear, Rowen's 'ere!" a voice trilled in answer, and Rowen jumped off the shoulders of the Ronin he had in a half-nelson. "We were just checkin' out th' desserts in th' case up front. Hope youse ain't been waitin' long!"

Cye rubbed his neck and winced, but offered the group a smile. "Did we miss anything?"

"Your appetizers'll be right up, sir," the little waitress said, bustling back up to the table, pad and pen at the ready. "Can I start to take your—oh!" Her dark ponytail swung as her green gaze bounced over the new arrivals. "Looks like the gang's all here!" she laughed.

"Yes," Mia said happily, looking around at her best friends—her family. "We are."

One of Mia's favorite things about her best friends was that no matter how much time had passed since the last occasion they'd seen each other, they always just picked up right where they'd left off.

* * *

"Stop stealing my fries, gannetface," Cye said, smacking Kento's hand away from his plate of french fries.

"It's your fault for not eating 'em fast enough," Kento laughed through bulging hamster cheeks. He'd already slopped ketchup down the bib pocket of his overalls. "These fries are great, but they'd be even better if they had cheese on 'em."

"Cheese, got it," their waitress said, black ponytail swishing as she walked past their table. "Coming right up, hon."

"Okay, Starlite gets the square," Kento declared, gesturing with a fry and smearing more ketchup on both the overalls and the white shirt he wore underneath them. "Best eating establishment ever."

"You have utterly _no_ loyalty, Kento," Sage teased from across the table. "Your family _owns_ a restaurant."

"Yeah, but we don't serve _cheese fries_," Kento said, shoving the plate towards Sage. "Try one of these. It'll blow your mind."

Sage wrinkled his nose in an expression of genteel horror. "No, thank you. I just got my mind the way I like it—in my _head_."

Kento pushed the plate towards Mia. "What about you, skinny?"

Mia shook her head, sipping her soda.

"Don't you _ever_ eat?" Kento teased. "My mother worries about you, you know." He grinned and raised his voice in a fussy impersonation of his mother. "That child doesn't eat right! She's so _thin_! Poor Mia, no husband, not even a boyfriend! Such a shame, such a pretty girl."

Mia swatted playfully at Kento with her napkin. "Will you _stop_? Everyone always acts like I'm such an old maid. If memory serves, I _had_ a boyfriend up until recently."

Sage coughed; Ryo stretched his arms over his head in an attempt to look casual; even Cye was averting his eyes. It was Rowen who said it aloud. "An' if mem'ry serves, that guy had the personality of a dial tone."

Mia frowned. "Thanks a lot, Rowen. Tell me again about that girl you met when you were tutoring remedial math?"

"Hey! That girl learned quick with the right incentive," Rowen protested, and then his eyes went soft with memory. "Real quick."

"That's enough," Sage cut in. "I don't want to hear any more."

"Me, either," Ryo agreed, and the others chuckled.

"Seriously, Mia," Kento said. "You need someone you can have fun with. That guy couldn't have kept up with you."

Mia's heart fluttered at the compliment, but she pouted anyway. "You guys could at least _pretend_ that you liked him."

Muffled giggles broke out around the table. "No, we can't," Cye laughed.

Surprised that the Ronin of Torrent had a negative word to say about _anyone_, Mia let her mouth drop open. "You guys only met him _once_!"

"Once was enough," Sage muttered darkly, eliciting more laughter from his friends.

Mia blushed miserably remembering that weekend. She'd been dating a researcher she'd met while editing her second book, and he'd been nice enough, if a little low-key. He'd quickly grown tired of hearing Mia talk about her "boys", even though she'd assured him they were only her friends and not romantic interests. To prove it, she'd invited everyone to stay at the mansion one weekend to meet him.

It had been a disaster straight out the gate. Ryo, who scrutinized any man that came within ten feet of Mia like an overprotective brother, was not impressed and couldn't keep his disapproval out of his voice, especially when he overheard Kyouya refer to her as "little miss". Cye had been equally unhappy when all the dinner dishes had been left to Mia and had rolled up his sleeves to help despite her protests that she could handle it.

They'd left the kitchen to find her boyfriend in a heated argument with Rowen and Kento, who'd settled down to play video games. Kyouya had remarked that such an activity was "juvenile", teasing them by asking when the ice-cream truck would be coming around. Ryo had jumped in to make a sarcastic apology about their not being classy enough for him, and Mia had chugged nervously at the last of the beer she'd sneaked from the fridge in a desperate attempt to calm her nerves.

Unfortunately, she and her boyfriend had often argued about how much he hated the sight of a woman drinking beer straight from the bottle, and his bad mood turned on her.

It had been Sage, of all people, who had stalled the argument. He'd politely interrupted to ask Mia if there were any more beer in the fridge, and she'd nodded distractedly. Sage had disappeared into the kitchen, returning with two bottles, one which he'd kept for himself and one that he'd pressed into her hand. It had been a clear drawing of the battle lines, and Mia's boyfriend had left in a huff, telling her to come find him when she grew up and started acting her age. The evening was completely ruined, and the longer Mia had spent sunning herself by the lake with the guys the next day, the more secretly relieved she'd been that she could just be herself around them and not have to deal with imagined values of decency and propriety, putting on an act to impress someone.

Kento smiled, reaching across Ryo to tweak Mia's nose gently. "Mama means well," he said. "She just thinks you hang out with us too much when you could be dating. She says having too many guys around makes you not need a man."

Mia dimpled at the warrior of Hardrock. "I bet lots of girls would be happy to be in my place."

"Well, too bad," Ryo said, slinging a friendly arm around her. "We're keeping you. It's your place, and no one else's."

"Too true," Cye laughed. "We'd hate to have to replace you this late in the game. We'd have to bring in that girl who was following Sage around like a puppy over Christmas break. What was her name again, Sage? Mary Sue-something-or-other?" Torrent's eyes twinkled.

Miserable at the memory of all the unwanted attention, Sage fidgeted, spearing a cheese fry with his fork. "Hell if I know," he grumbled. "They're all named Mary Sue."

The laughter that broke out around the table was marred by an exclamation from Cye, who had belatedly realized that his friends had been stealing his french fries for about fifteen minutes now.

* * *

"How are the notes coming, Mia? When can we expect the next best-seller?" Cye asked cheekily after the dessert had arrived.

Mia giggled around a spoonful of cheesecake. "The twelfth of Never Going to Happen at this point. I'm having trouble even deciding what I want my characters to be like. Do you think the hero should be a man or a woman this time?"

Kento chuckled. "She should be a hot chick, who's really smart. After all, Mia, you'd tell a great story about that, cause they say to write what you know, ri—_ow_." The Warrior of Hardrock glanced to the side of the table where Rowen and Sage were sitting innocently. "Which one of you kicked me?"

Earlier, Ryo had spilled some of his soda and mopped it up with a napkin. Now, Mia took the wet napkin and tossed it at Kento. "Stop being silly! Besides, Kento, you haven't even _read_ any of my books."

"I love your books!" Kento argued, dodging the napkin. "I just haven't finished, you know, reading them yet."

"There were too many big words for 'im," Rowen said, grinning. A second later, he ducked the napkin, which Kento had retrieved and thrown at him.

"Forget me," Mia said. "I want to hear about _you_ guys. What's going on? Classes going well?"

"It's not so bad," Cye said. "I'm actually sort of having fun with my classes. How about you, Ryo?" He looked at the Ronin of Wildfire.

Ryo sighed. "Well, I liked biology…up until recently." The end of the statement was a mutter.

"You should have gone to school." Mia glanced at Sage, who looked briefly uncomfortable.

"What for?" the blond said airily, tossing his hair.

Mia knew he was talking about his home—he was next in line to inherit his family's dojo, and being the only son, things were expected of him. Still, it annoyed her that he wasn't more bothered by the lack of autonomy he seemed to have regarding his own life.

Kento jumped in to save Sage. "School's for chumps," he teased, waggling his eyebrows at the three Ronin who _were_ enrolled in classes. "I don't go to school, and look how well I'm doing!"

"How _fat_ you're doing is more like it," Cye teased right back, poking Kento in the stomach. True to form, Hardrock was definitely taking his responsibilities at his family's restaurant seriously—which included sampling the wares for sale. "Warrior of Hardrock? Hah! We should start calling you something else. How about Pudge—"

Kento pushed Cye's hand away playfully. "Hey! I'm not fat! I think I'm filling out quite nicely, actually."

Sage cheered up a bit. "You're not filling out quite nicely! You're bigger than ever!"

"You guys are just totally jealous of my hot body," Kento said, striking a pose.

"I might throw up everythin' I've just eaten," Rowen muttered, winking.

Mia laughed. They were really just teasing—Kento was still rock-solid with muscle, despite his obvious enjoyment of the softer life—but she sighed in contentment at the sound of the brotherly bickering she loved to hear.

When Ryo saw her expression, he bumped his shoulder affectionately against hers. "Me, too," he said happily.

* * *

Once the plates were cleared away, Mia reluctantly glanced at her watch. She was loath to leave this happy table, even for a little while. "I hate to say it, but I've got to run," she sighed. The statement was greeted with loud exclamations of disbelief and negatives from the guys.

"What!" Cye said.

"We just got here," Sage added.

"Maybe she's got a hot date," Rowen waggled blue eyebrows at Mia teasingly.

"She's got the five hottest dates in the _world_ right here!" Kento said, slinging a friendly arm around Mia. "Don'tcha, gorgeous?"

Mia giggled. "It's _not_ a date. It's only for a little while—I have to meet with one of my grandfather's former colleagues. He's trying to put together a book and he wants to use me as a source."

"I'll just bet he does," Rowen quipped.

Kento guffawed. "See! Hot chicks who are really smart get lots of attent—_ow_." He winced again, then glared at Sage. "It's _you_ who keeps kicking me, you're the only one wearing dress shoes."

Sage ignored Kento and turned to Mia. "Meet him some other time."

"Yeah, let him write his own book!" Cye joked.

Mia smiled at their persistence. "If it wasn't for him, I'd have had no reason to come here and see you all. We should be thanking him! It's only for a couple of hours, I promise."

"Yeah, she'll be back," Ryo promised. "She and White Blaze are staying at the cabin for a while, right, Mia? Speaking of which, who's crashing where?"

"I'm staying wherever Rowen stays!" Kento said, grabbing the blue-haired Ronin's sleeve. "Sage _snores_ like a chain saw!"

Sage flushed, jaw tightening. "I'm going to kill you one day, Kento."

Kento made a kissing sound at Sage. "Love you, man."

Sage made a face. Ryo laughed. "Sage? I can offer you the sofa, and the name of a good chiropractor when the weekend's over."

"That bad, huh?" Sage smiled briefly, like a flash of lightning, far-off. "Thanks, Ryo."

Mia glanced at her watch. "Oh, jeez. I'm late. I really have to go."

"Why don't you call my place when you're all done?" Ryo said to Mia, looking around the table. "Guys? Up for a few hands?"

"Definitely," Rowen said, eyes going steely. "I owe ya for the last time!"

"I won that Ho-Ho fair and square, Little Boy Blue," Kento said.

Mia laughed. "Don't have too much fun without me, guys. I have to go." She pressed her lips together, checking her watch again. "I had no idea it had gotten so late. I'm going to get stuck in traffic."

"Why don't you just take the subway?" Ryo said. "It'd be faster and you wouldn't have to fight the traffic. There's a stop right near the campus."

Mia thought it over. "I suppose I could leave my car at Ryo's and get it later on."

"Call us when you're done," Sage suggested. "I'll come pick you up. You shouldn't be traveling alone after dark."

Mia's mouth tucked at the implication that she was helpless. "That's sweet of you, Sage, but I'll be okay."

The other boys immediately backed up the Ronin of Wisdom. "Sage is right, Mia," Ryo said. "Let him pick you up—he's got a car, and there's no need for you to be on the street alone."

"Yeah, especially with a man-eating beast on the loose!" Kento chuckled ghoulishly.

"I _live_ with a man-eating beast," Mia laughed. "I'm not scared of those."

"_Kento_ is a man-eating beast," Cye teased, poking Kento in the arm.

Kento just smiled excitedly. "Seriously, you guys, haven't you been reading the newspaper? There's a monster out there that's been eating dogs and cats. And one homeless person!" The Warrior of Hardrock nodded at the incredulous looks he was receiving. "Even the prostitutes are scared to go out, and _they_ have _switchblades_!"

Sage frowned. "You watch too much TV, Kento."

"I didn't _watch_ it, I _read_ it," Kento corrected. "The _Sun-Times_ had a huge spread on it."

Cye rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "The _Sun-Times_ featured the story? Was that before or after the feature on aliens landing and not being able to get jobs at Seven-Eleven?"

Rowen laughed. "The _Sun-Times_ ain't exactly Pulitzer-Prize-winnin' journalism, Kento."

"I'm telling you it's true!" Kento said. "Don't you guys believe me?"

Mia chewed her lower lip, wishing she could back her friend up but unable to be dishonest to him. "Kento, you once told us you saw Sailor Moon at a McDonald's."

"She was ordering a Happy Meal," Kento insisted. The others groaned playfully, throwing their napkins at him.

Pouting, the Warrior of Hardrock crossed his arms over his chest. "Fine. Don't believe me. Get eaten by the beast."

Getting up from her chair, Mia dropped a kiss on Kento's head. "Don't pout or your face will freeze like that. I promise to call for a ride, okay?" She tossed a fold of bills on the table. "Dinner's on me, guys."

Rowen whistled. "Thank ya, suga mama." Mia swatted at him, giggling.

"No," Sage said sternly, reaching for his own wallet. "Give that back to her."

"I got it," Kento and Ryo said simultaneously.

But Mia wouldn't take the money back. She blew a kiss, escaping from the table. "I'm already gone, I'm not listening. Call you guys later!"

* * *

Having spent a lot of her life in some kind of learning institution, some time ago they'd all begun to blur together in Mia's mind, a wet-paint smudge of trees and paths and lampposts and books and high windows. Mia was unnerved by how deserted the campus of Hiro's university was—most of the students were already out enjoying their summer recess. The paths were empty save for the occasional harried student running late to catch up on something.

She wasn't really worried about anything happening to her, but the light was dying nonetheless. She found a bench to wait on with a lamppost standing guard. As she smoothed her skirt, the bulb sputtered to life, contrasting sharply with the sunset sky.

"Ms. Koji?"

Mia blinked; it had taken her a few seconds to recognize who was calling her name. Hiro looked _terrible_.

She remembered him being very energetic, full of life and vitality, and his voice on the phone had echoed the memory. But the man's eyes were sunken, the shadows so dark beneath them that he looked like a linebacker. His hair, which had always been trendily mussed, was positively unkempt. His dress shirt and slacks were wrinkled, as if he'd slept in them, but he didn't look like a person who got much sleep. His eyes scanned the path like nervous radar, rolling wildly, the whites latticed with veins. "Thank you for coming, Ms. Koji—Mia," he said, voice cracking as if his throat were sore.

"Hiro," Mia said, unable to keep the surprise out of her voice as she stood up to greet him.

"I am _so_ sorry," he began, one hand running through his messy dark hair, the other holding a comfortably worn leather satchel that looked like it had seen Hiro through a lot of projects. "I'm running a little late. It's been—it's been a hard week."

Mia, having had more than her share of rough weeks, was instantly sympathetic. "Why don't you let me take you out for a cup of coffee? You can sit down and relax a bit."

Hiro looked almost pathetically grateful at the thought of a cup of coffee, but he shook his head. "I wish I could, but there's still something I need to take care of. I hate to ask you to do this, but could you give me one more hour?"

Mia really wanted to say no, especially when the guys were a phone call away at Ryo's, having much more fun than she was right now. "Sure, no big deal. Listen, Hiro, if today's no good for you—"

"No!" he interrupted fiercely, seizing her arm. "Mia, please. I really need your help." He glanced around once more. "Now more than ever. Please."

Mia's heart softened. She wanted to tell him that it wasn't the end of the world (and she knew; she'd narrowly missed the end of the world a good half dozen times), but she also knew how sometimes things _did_ feel like a huge crisis when you were standing on the edge of them, doomed to failure.

In the end, her inability to turn down someone who needed her help won out. "You take as much time as you need, Hiro. Where should I meet you?"

"How about here in an hour?" Hiro's relief was plain on his tired face. "I'm just going to take care of one more thing and pick up some things at the library. I won't be long; I promise." He thrust the satchel he was carrying into her hands. "Here, take this. It's got all my notes in it. Maybe you can take a look while you're waiting? You'll have better answers to my questions."

Happy to have something to read while she waited, Mia took the satchel. "Okay. See you in an hour."

"Thank you," Hiro breathed. "_Thank _you." And then he turned and ran off, glancing over his shoulder once before he disappeared behind the student center.

_Poor guy_, Mia thought, swinging the satchel as she walked in the opposite direction to look for a place to wait. _This book research must be killing him!_

* * *

There was a small coffee shop near where she'd parked her car that boasted a halfway decent iced coffee. Mia sipped at one as she opened Hiro's satchel and examined the contents. The tables were clean and the place wasn't crowded due to the hour—the after-dinner crowds hadn't quite begun to filter in yet.

The coffee shop was trying to be trendy, and the table was near the window, only big enough for one person. Mia had a hard time fitting all the books neatly on the tabletop. There was a textbook about ritual magic, a small address book and a fat, leather-bound book with ruled pages inside and tons of Post-It notes falling out of it, their strips losing their adhesive and their edges curling.

She flipped through the textbook first. She'd seen that sort of thing before in her own research, not just the research she did to help the Ronin Warriors but also the research she did for her own books—she wrote about myths and there was hardly a myth that didn't involve some kind of magic. Over the course of her life with the boys, her work with her grandfather and her book research, Mia had come to know a little about a lot of mystical things. She recognized several symbols as she turned the pages and the names and images of quite a few demons and mythical beasts of legend.

The address book wasn't very interesting. All it contained were a few telephone numbers of fellow professors and some other people. Less than a dozen appointments and reminder notes were scrawled lightly in pencil, some of them crossed out. Towards the back of the book the pages contained more, but Mia couldn't read any of the squiggly symbols. They didn't look like any language that she was familiar with, but she'd spent enough of her time trying to decipher her own handwriting when taking feverish notes. It didn't surprise her that Hiro had come up with his own shorthand to make it easier for him—every serious scholar she'd ever known, herself included, had done that.

The leather-bound book seemed to thrum in her hands with energy; it was almost as if she could feel how much passion and hard work Hiro had put into his project. Notes were stuck everywhere, right from the inside cover on. Some of them had bullet points written on them, the writing small and neat. Others had one word scrawled across them with a question mark, a reminder to follow up on something later. The squiggly shorthand symbols were everywhere, and whimsical drawings of kitsune and nekomata scampered over the margins, and there was a beautiful drawing of a raiju wolf on one of the dividers, with blue ink wrapped around it to symbolize the lightning.

The only problem was that despite how far into the book she read, how closely she studied the notes and the sketches and symbols, all Mia saw was a catalogue of different mythical beasts and the common elements between their stories. Several of the pages were dedicated to flow charts that described different events in different legends, all leading to the place where the mythical creature showed up. She wasn't sure exactly what kind of point Hiro was trying to make from simply drawing parallels between a bunch of legends. Commonality was interesting, but what point could he possibly hope to make from this?

She decided to make that her first question as she looked at her watch, realizing that she was actually a little late to meet him again. Scooping up the books and notes, she quickly shoved them back into the satchel, tossing her coffee cup in the bin as she hurried out the door of the shop.

As her heels clacked over the campus paths back to the bench she'd waited on earlier, she saw that no one was waiting for her. Glancing at her watch again, she worried her lower lip between her teeth. Had Hiro gotten impatient? It was almost half an hour later than the time they'd agreed upon.

Then she shook the thought away. Hiro had been desperate for her to give him more time; he'd stressed how important her help was to him. Smiling, Mia realized he'd probably just lost of track of time, too—he might still be in the library, gathering his information. She decided to go there and intercept him—precious evening minutes that she could be spending with the guys were ticking away, and she wanted to get back to them as soon as possible. Nodding at her own idea, she strode towards the library building, satchel swinging.

Mia wasn't surprised that the library was deserted—it was getting late, and classes were over for this term. Anyone who was still on-campus were doing hardcore research for thesis papers or bigger projects, like Hiro himself. Through the glass-plated front door, she could see that even the front desk was empty, its surface cleared of all books, stamps and writing implements. The fluorescent light above the doorway buzzed and flickered as she pushed the door open. "Hiro?" she called, flinching at how loud her voice was in the entryway.

She'd thought that maybe Hiro had gotten engrossed in his research and lost track of time, but no one emerged from the stacks to answer her call. Clutching the satchel, Mia ventured past the front desk and took a turn into the romance literature section. "It's Mia," she called. "It's been almost two hours, Hiro, and I've really got to get back soon. It's getting late. Let's just go over what you've got, all right?"

Still nothing. Rounding a cart full of books that hadn't been reshelved, she found a smaller staircase up to the second floor and ascended, adding, "Did you forget we were supposed to meet here?"

Crossing the landing to the railing, she rested her hands lightly on it and scanned the first floor, looking for any sign of life. "Well, that's just great," she muttered. "I'm giving him ten more minutes, and then I'm calling Sage and…" She trailed off when she saw the hand, fingertips barely visible against the pale carpeting of the first floor. Slowly, she circled the landing to the top of the main staircase, the better to see what the hand was attached to, the full horror of the scene framed by the railings.

There is something about awful sights that magnetize us to them. The more hideous and outlandish the occurrence, the more convinced we are that it could not possibly be true, and the longer and harder we must look at it to assure ourselves that what we are seeing is in fact reality.

Mia Koji was a brilliant girl. She was smart enough to have breezed through her schooling at an early age and assume the mantle of being her grandfather's research assistant without breaking her stride. She could recite back, to the letter, ancient legends that had been long since forgotten by the majority of the populace. She could decode complex encryptions and figure out computer programs while running for her life. She knew exactly which part of her car's engine to hit with a crescent wrench when it started making that funny noise; she never forgot a friend's birthday and she knew exactly, when dividing a cake between five boys, one girl and a hungry tiger, how many slices each would get.

The rational part of Mia's brain, the part that knew all these things, was patiently pointing out to her that there was no way the man lying at the foot of the stairs was alive, not lying on his right side with his head twisted much too far over his left shoulder, not with those knobbly bumps that were unmistakably broken bone threatening to tear through the misshapen skin of his neck. Not with his sightless eyes fixed wide open, staring at nothing.

Ironically, the thing that Mia grabbed onto for support when she began screaming was a freestanding sign that read, "Quiet Please".

* * *

Sage had taken off his sport jacket and draped it over the back of his chair, and even his dress shirt seemed too hot all of a sudden, the overhead light beating down on him like the midsummer sun. But his discomfort was probably due more to the fact that all he had in his hand was a pair of twos.

Meanwhile, Kento, who had the worst poker face in the world, was smiling so hard his eyes were nearly crescents in his face. Obviously, Hardrock had a good hand.

The rest of the guys around Ryo's dinette table seemed to think so, too. "I fold," Cye, Ryo and Rowen said simultaneously, tossing their cards into the center of the table. Sage threw his cards on top of theirs. "Me, too."

Kento's mouth dropped open. "Aw, _come on_, you guys! You didn't even bet anything."

Rowen chuckled. "Ya stink at this, Kento. When ya gotta good hand, we know it. When ya gotta bad hand, we know it."

"I hate you guys." Kento threw his cards on the table in disgust—three jacks, easily beating Sage's pair of twos, Ryo's pair of fives, Cye's ace high and Rowen…well, Rowen didn't have anything good and hadn't since the game had begun.

The guys chuckled at their friend as Rowen dealt out the next hand. "Maybe we'll play a game that's more your speed next, Kento," Cye said. "Uno, maybe? Or Go Fish?"

"Hate you guys," Kento repeated with a smile as he accepted his cards from Rowen. "Seriously hate you guys."

The brotherly bickering continued as the cards were dealt, and Ryo sighed in contentment. It sure was nice to have the whole gang together, even if only for a few days. _This break's going to be killer,_ he exulted, closing his eyes.

Actually, the Warrior of Wildfire was closer to the truth than he knew. Oh, crystal ball, crystal ball.

* * *

**A Lot of Author's Notes, Which Is Only To Be Expected In The First Chapter:**

**Silver sails all out of the West:** Look, I'm an American girl. And I'm not that awful kind of horrid beast that is too stupid to know that the word "otaku" is an insult and slips Japanese words into her everyday speech trying to sound cute. I just love a good story. This fic is set in Japan because the guys live there and that's where the story takes place. I don't pretend to know anything about Japanese culture save a few facts I've learned from people who've been there or read up extensively on the subject. So please forgive me but I'm unable to help writing with a Western-hemisphere spin on things. This is not meant to go against canon; I'm just an American, that's all. (smiles.)

**Canon love:** I don't have an "original character". I don't write crossovers. And I don't put myself in my stories. My canon already has a female lead. And she kicks ass, takes names, has the knowledge, and rules with kindness. Yes, she does. So I won't be appearing in this story, and if you're looking for some magical Sue to show up with another suit of armor and suddenly bespell all the guys with plus-ten sexiness, you're out of luck. I really like writing stories about Mia, who I think is treated entirely unfairly by a _lot_ of the ficwriters in the RW/YST fandom—the story wouldn't have even _happened _without Mia. Sure, she gets captured, but so do _all _the Ronin over the course of the series! I was honored that she chose me to tell this story—for a long time, I've wanted to restore her dignity and her rightful place in the group, which is constantly being stolen by a seemingly endless parade of beautiful Sues that show up in the canonverse without so much as a passport or traveler's cheques and then proceed to magnetize everyone to them impossibly, taking the place of what's really important to the canon characters with only a tragic angsty past, a startling eye and hair color, the same powers or weapons as the heroes, and some vague connection to the villains as their excuse. **Not on my watch!**

**The Starlite Diner:** The Starlite Diner is not a canon location, and again, it might not be the norm overseas in Japan, but I have a special love for diners—they're open twenty-four hours promising coffee and chocolate milk and comfort food, and a lime rickey any time you want one, and the _sanctuary_ in that is something I love and it's _very_ important to me. Just like a friendship that lasts through growing up and Dynasty wars, diners are always going to be there through thick and thin, something that makes sense in a world constantly spinning on its axis, so I wanted the Ronin to have a safe place, too.

**Things I'm leaving out:** The _Message_ armor and the Inferno armor. I have the complete series on DVD (it's my treasure!), but after extensive deliberation I've decided _not_ to include the _Message _armor in order to ensure smoother writing of this fic. Know that this is _not_ because I didn't enjoy _Message_. _Message _is a very involved story and Suzunagi is a very interesting villain. However, I can't write about the guys' new armors that they receive in the OVA because I don't know enough about them, and there will be battle scenes in this fic so I need the guys to armor up in a way I can actually write about. Besides, I love their original armors to death. On that note, Inferno will not be making an appearance in this story, so sorry, all you Inferno fans (if there are any). This is _not_ because I don't enjoy the canon. I will _always _honor canon as best I can. **I love canon. **I'm just trying to ensure that this fic goes as smoothly as possible.

Anyone pick up on one of my favorite things about this fic? _There are no cellular phones in it_. (smiles) While I can't state specifically when this fic takes place (I'm not sure myself!) cell phones would be anachronistic in the YST canon, so I'm not including them. Could you just imagine Ryo or Rowen walking around with one of those huge Zack Morris cell phones anyhow?

I'll admit the geological blocking in this fic gave me a run for my yoroi. Again, not much is known about these guys beyond the canon, so I wasn't sure where they were coming from, and I apologize for any mistakes—despite extensive research, no two sources seemed to match, so in the end I went with the locations that were listed on a site whose webmaster corroborated my inquiries with translations of books and audio. I am most appreciative of him for answering my many questions—thank you **Peter**, webmaster of the Sage Page!

**"So this is beautiful Shinsai U":** Speaking of geological blocking giving me a run for my yoroi, I had a _huge_ problem when it came to placing Mia. As far as we can tell from the American canon, she lives outside of Toyama (she made it there in her car before all hell broke loose in "Shadowland", so I'm assuming she wasn't _too_ far away; in the Japanese YST, the story takes place in Tokyo—Shinjuku, I think—but in the American RW, it's changed inexplicably to Toyama. As I told Ghost of the Dawn, who was helping me figure it out, I don't care _where_ it is, as long as it's _supposed _to be the same place. Since I'm sticking with American canon, this fic takes place in Toyama—thank you Ty for your help!). In "The Search Begins", Mia asks Ryo, "Let's go to Shinsai University…" to see her grandfather. Upon arriving and seeing that all the flowers have wilted due to Sekhmet's poison, Ryo remarks sarcastically, "So this is beautiful Shinsai U." Having little to _no_ knowledge of Japanese topography or cartography, I have tried repeatedly to look up the name, and as far as I can tell, it doesn't exist. Being that I have absolutely no clue where she'd be, I just kept the name and am chalking it up to suspension of disbelief. Please know that this is _not_ meant to go against canon or to turn the characters' backgrounds upside down to serve my own ficwriting means; I promise I've researched it to death and have come up empty.

**Rowen in the comic shop:** I had fun having Rowen expound on some familiar manga, although some of the titles (like the excellent _Chicago_) might be anachronistic. _Chicago_ is a beautifully drawn detective story that used to run in _Animerica Extra_, and it's interesting, too. _Patlabor _is a mecha comedy, and it's great fun, like a similar title I enjoy called _Dominion Tank Police_. I'm not really a big fan of harem animes like _Ranma ½_, really, (except for _Tenchi Muyo!_; I like _Tenchi Universe_ a lot) and while _Vampire Hunter D _is dark and lovely, they really shouldn't push the leads together like that. It's all such crap. When he storms out of the shop in a rage, Rowen calls the customers **Philistines**—meaning, people who have no appreciation for art or beauty.

**The CJ-6 and the Nissan Fairlady:** I have the privilege of knowing a Jeep CJ-6, and the brief privilege of riding in a Nissan Z-3, the descendant of the Fairlady, which was never available stateside, only in Japan. I love the idea of Kento having a rugged truck. As for Sage, every good Ronin fan should know that he's a speed demon, and I can't think of anything sexier than him at the wheel of the gorgeous Fairlady, tearing up the road and my heart! (smiles dreamily).

**Imaginary Rollercoaster:** Believe it or not, that is a true story. A friend of mine once threw up from pretending too well to be on an imaginary rollercoaster.

**_Felis domesticus_**,as I'm sure all you science types know, is a house cat. My best friend (who is also my beta reader for going on—what is it now, eight years?) also once refused to euthanize and dissect one in her college biology class, which was very cool of her. It was also cool of her to allow me to present the idea to Ryo, who was just as horrified by it as we were. The reference to a student liberating a group of dissection frogs is a shoutout to my homegirl **Sam Manson**, who pulled the same stunt in the _Danny Phantom _episode "One of a Kind".

Kento's mentioning that he saw **Sailor Moon** is anachronistic. Naoko Takeuchi's manga didn't start its run in Japan until 1991. (And I'm sorry, but crossing over _Ronin Warriors _and _Sailor Moon_ in fanfiction is not okay. Ever. Just because there are _five_ Ronin and _five_ Sailor Scouts doesn't mean that those two series have _anything_ to do with each other. All it means is that you can count to _ten_!)

**Kitsune** is a name for a fox demon in Japanese mythology. Across all boards of mythology, foxes are known for being very clever and for being tricksters. **Nekomata **are a type of **bakeneko**, or "monster cat". When a cat reaches a certain age or its tail reaches a certain length or it grows to be a certain size, it becomes a bakeneko. When the bakeneko's tail splits in two, it becomes a **nekomata**, or "forked cat" (an example of a nekomata is Kirara from _Inuyasha_, in case you are wondering). A **raiju**, or thunder demon, can take many forms, like a weasel or a tanuki, but my favorite is the image of a lightning-wrapped wolf. I'd love to try to draw one like Hiro did sometime!

Okay, if anyone's actually read this far, I congratulate you and appreciate it! I promise the next chapter is not as long as this one, but no promises about the length of chapter three.


	2. A Sudden Death

**Author's Introduction:**

I never seem to have much to say at the beginning of the chapter, but at the end, trust me, you'll wish I would shut up. So just read on, and I'd love it if you let me know if you're having fun by leaving a review. I read them _all_ and I'm grateful for every one—especially the ones that tell me what the readers like the most, or even what they don't like so much. I learn from stuff like that, so I appreciate all of it.

Okay, folks—not everyone lived through the first chapter. Let's find out why.

* * *

**Cross My Heart, And Hope To Die**

_A Ronin Warriors fanfiction by Firestar9mm_

* * *

**Chapter Two: A Sudden Death**

* * *

_A gasp of breath,__  
A sudden death:  
The tale begun._

(**Dean Koontz, _The__ Book of Counted Sorrows_**)

* * *

The light was low, and a smoky haze hung in the air. The adversaries leveled steely gazes at one another across the battlefield.

"Awright, ya losas," Rowen drawled, adjusting a visor that looked rather comical on his blue hair—he had insisted on both that, and being the dealer. The other boys had allowed both—the best way to defuse Strata's sillier moods was to let him have his way. "Let's see what'cha made of!"

"You are so going down, Strata," Kento chuckled maliciously from the other side of the table. Rowen hadn't had a single good hand since the game had started.

"You wish. Ante up."

Every boy threw an Oreo into the center of Ryo's dinette table as Rowen dealt cards with quick movements of his hands. Each boy had a small pile of junk food beside him; some had more than others.

"I open with three Chee-tos," Ryo announced in a very businesslike manner that was completely at odds with the "money" he was putting into the pool.

"See your Chee-tos," Sage said, equally businesslike. The heat had finally gotten to him and he'd discarded his dress shirt along with his sport jacket, revealing a pale t-shirt over his trousers. "Raise you a Yodel."

"Oooh, big spendaaaa," Rowen teased, adding a Yodel of his own to the pool.

"Kento's _eating_ the money," Cye complained.

"I _won _it," Kento protested. "I should get to eat it." This last was said around a mouthful of Twinkie; his pile of junk food had been steadily decreasing since the game had started, and not just because he'd lost a few hands.

"If you keep eating everything, Kento, you won't have anything left to bet with, and we're not giving you any more credit," Sage admonished. His own pool of snacks had been neatly sorted into like groups.

"You guys _suck_." Kento flipped a Twizzler into the pool as Rowen dealt more cards.

"Call," Rowen said. "Let's see 'em."

"Two tens," Sage said, displaying his hand.

"Fold," Ryo groused, tossing his cards onto the table. "I got nothing."

"I'm out," Kento agreed. "I need to stop trying for a flush."

"Sage beats my two threes," Rowen said. "Cye?"

Torrent's grin was ever so slightly smug. "Full boat," he said in triumph. "Aces and ladies. Read 'em and weep." He chuckled as he collected his junk-food winnings, while his opponents groaned at yet another loss.

"How does he keep _doing_ that?" Ryo exclaimed.

"I know," Rowen said. "Out of all of us, who'da thought that _Cye_ had the best poker face?"

"I couldn't believe it when he drew to that inside straight," Sage agreed.

Kento gave Cye a playful shove. "Looks like you're a regular card shark, fish-boy!"

The phone purred. "That'll be Mia checking in," Ryo said, looking relieved. "I was starting to worry."

Sage echoed Ryo's sentiment with action instead of talk—he immediately put his cards facedown on the table and moved to answer the phone, but Rowen beat him to it with a waggle of his blue eyebrows.

Instead of passing the phone to his friend, Rowen picked it up himself. "Yo, yo." The other boys watched as he smiled, propping his feet up on the table, leaning back in his chair. "Heya, gorgeous! Ready t'come down? We'll float ya two Twinkies an' a Ring Ding. Me n' the guys are—"

Something happened on the other end of the line to interrupt him mid-sentence. His expression darkened, brows meeting as he listened. "Wait, what's wrong? Are ya cryin'?" As the others looked on, Rowen's smile dropped and his eyes became steely. "Wait. Wait. _What_?"

Ryo and Sage exchanged concerned looks while Cye mouthed _What's__ wrong?_ Rowen ignored them, one hand gesturing nervously as he spoke.

"Mia, it'll be okay. Stop—stop cryin'. Tell me exactly what happened." He listened, and then his nightsky eyes shot wide open and his feet dropped from the table to plant solidly on the floor. "_What??_"

"_What?_" the other four chorused, getting to their feet.

"Rowen, what _is _it?" Ryo demanded. 

Rowen gestured wildly, as if to say _Give me a minute_! "_Wait_, whoa, back up a second," he said. "Ya found a _what_?" His eyes were open so wide the lashes were touching his skin all around. "_Where_? Are ya okay? Are ya _hurt_?"

"Give it to me," Sage and Ryo both said at the same time, reaching for the phone.

Rowen pushed his chair back from the table, keeping the phone away from them. "We're comin' t'get ya, 'kay? We're on our way right now. Sit tight an' don't let th' bastards get t'ya, okay? We're comin' right now."

In times of trouble, the five boys had been known to almost share a brain. This time was no different as the other four yelled, "What happened?"

Rowen put his hands out in a "whoa" gesture. "Okay, I couldn't really get all of it 'cause she was cryin', but we gotta problem."

"She was supposed to be here hours ago," Kento said. "I didn't think her meeting with that colleague of hers would take this long. Did something happen to her?"

"Not t'her," Rowen said. "To her colleague. When he neva showed up, she went t'the library t'look for him an' found him in there."

"Dude," Ryo breathed. "Is he okay?"

"He is severely not okay." Rowen shook his head. "He's dead."

"_Dead_?" Cye exclaimed. "How awful!"

Sage's visible eye was pale with shock. "Wait," he said, fighting to keep his voice level, "where is she _now_? Don't tell me the police are questioning her."

All the boys looked to the warrior of Strata. Rowen's eyes were midnight dark with apprehension. "Dunno," he said finally, shrugging helplessly. "Couldn't really undastand 'er at that point. Said they weren't lettin' her leave, just askin' th' same stuff ova an' ova again."

It might have been quite a while since mystical armor and magical swords, but now and forever the boys were a team, and once they'd grasped the situation they acted like one.

"Money and a car," Ryo said. "Who's got what?"

"I've got twenty…no, thirty dollars," Cye said, thumbing through his wallet. Pulling the bills out, he tossed them onto the table. "What about you guys?"

Ryo threw a crumpled-up ten on the pile. "It's all I have."

Wordlessly, Sage tossed neatly folded bills alongside Ryo's ten.

Kento snickered. "Do you _iron_ your money or something? Seriously, dude, you need to lighten up a little."

"Don't tease him, Kento," Cye said, noting how Sage's eyes were scanning the room like nervous radar. Even now, the blond tensed up when Mia was in any kind of danger.

"I haven't got anything on me, but if we stop at an ATM I'll get whatever we need," Kento promised.

"Car," was the next item on the list. "Whose should we take?"

"_No_," Sage said when he saw Kento about to speak up. "That junk heap of yours will fall apart the minute I take a turn."

"Who said _you_ were driving?" Kento asked, not taking Cye's advice.

Ryo stepped between them to stall the impending argument. Sage's Fairlady was definitely faster than Kento's CJ-6, but they were definitely not all fitting in the Fairlady, even without Mia. "We can't all fit in your car, Sage, it's a sport model."

"Then I'll meet you there." The blond's arms, crossed over his chest, were singing with tension.

"No good," Cye said. "We should go together—we don't want to make trouble or look suspicious." As he spoke, he tread on Kento's foot, pressing down hard on the other boy's toes.

Kento finally took the hint. "We'll take mine. Here, Sage. You can—" He tossed the blond the keys, and Sage snatched them ferociously out of the air, already heading for the door. "—drive."

Rowen scooped the money off the table, and the rest of them followed.

"Up front, Kento," Sage ordered. "Where's your bank?"

"Take 24th street, I'll tell you when to turn," Kento answered, striking a dramatic pose in the passenger seat. "_To the rescue_!"

Sage stomped on the gas, and the tires squealed in pain.

"Hey! Take it easy, Takumi Fujiwara," Kento warned as he was thrown back in his seat. "I just fixed the brakes on this thing."

* * *

There had been one time when the guys had been staying at Mia's house for the weekend that Rowen had thought it would be fun to play a joke on Sage. He'd switched the sugar and salt containers before heading off to bed, expecting to have a good laugh the next morning when Halo poured his tea.

Of course, Mia had gotten up early that morning to make breakfast, and she'd poured a liberal amount of "sugar" into her coffee, unaware of what Rowen had done. She'd spit the awful mixture out all over the counter, drinking milk straight from the carton to wash the taste out of her mouth.

The police station coffee sort of tasted like that.

They'd offered her the cup of questionable liquid when they'd first brought her into the interrogation room; she'd accepted politely but wasn't drinking it, simply letting it cool between her cupped hands as she repeated the same story over and over again. It had all started badly when they'd called her "Mrs. Koji" and hadn't liked that she'd corrected them. She didn't understand the "good cop, bad cop" scenario people were always talking about. One of the officers just looked completely bored with her, and the other was treating her like she was a total nuisance, too stupid to know what had happened to her.

She had no idea how long she'd really been sitting there—there was no clock on the bare grey walls, and the high windows gave no clues to the progression of the dark night outside, just black sky beyond the smeary glass. Sitting almost forlornly on the sill was a plastic basket of plush animals—things like a bunny leaking stuffing from a few burst seams, a long snake with big, googly eyes, a pony whose neck was flopping over from too many instances of being clutched tightly in terror—probably for when they wanted to comfort a child they had to question. The thought of a child being in this unfriendly room was appalling to Mia, and the battered toys scared her even as her hands itched irrationally to pull one to her chest and hug it. She was very aware of the absence of White Blaze at her side. He was the best toy—warm, solid, alive, ready to scratch hell out of anyone who even looked at her funny.

The detectives were looking at her funny.

"And you're a…novelist, is that right, Mrs. Koji?" the bored detective, who had introduced himself as Detective Shiga, asked. His hair was clipped very short, leaving his ears marooned on the sides of his head, and Mia wondered exactly how much overtime had conditioned him to keep his appearance as low-maintenance as possible. His dress shirt was wrinkling beneath the shoulder straps of his holster, adding to the overall air of weariness that shrouded him.

"Yes," Mia repeated, brushing her bangs off her forehead for what felt like the thousandth time. The interview room was poorly ventilated, and the enclosed space was humid; her skin prickled with heat. The chair they'd insisted she sit in was straight-backed and stiff, and she resisted a paranoid urge to wipe any fingerprints she might be leaving on the table's surface away with the sleeve of her jacket. "Hiro Imamura used to teach alongside my grandfather at Shinsai University. I was my grandfather's research assistant at the time, and Hiro wanted to cite me as a source for his upcoming book, so we agreed to meet on campus. When he didn't show up at the appointed time, I remembered he'd mentioned going to the library and went to look for him there. That's where I found him." She'd figured out how to compress the story into a manageable bite by now, but she still couldn't bring herself to say "the body".

Detective Kozu was considerably shorter than his partner and reminded Mia of a small, angry puppy. He was obviously suffering from the heat of the room as well—his shirt was stained dark beneath his arms and his face was shining in the overhead lights. His hair kept flopping over onto his forehead, and he kept pushing it back, doing his best to show her he could tough it out better than she could. "And this was strictly a business meeting?" he asked, imbuing the word "business" with half a ton of innuendo as his eyes flickered over the crumpled remains of Mia's white pinstriped suit for about the eighth or ninth time since they'd been questioning her.

Mia's glare threatened a lawsuit.

Detective Shiga, apparently envisioning the citizen's complaint forms flying in, tried to salvage the situation. "I apologize for my partner, Mrs. Koji. We didn't mean to infer—"

Mia interrupted, hands tightening on the Styrofoam cup until coffee lapped out onto the table. "The listener infers, Detective. The speaker implies. And _you_ are _speculating_." Her meaning was clear. "And for the last time, it's 'Ms'."

He sighed, flipping his notepad back a few pages. "If you could tell us one more time from the beginning…"

Her elbows rapped sharply on the table's surface as she propped her arms up, but if it hurt her, she didn't show it. "I don't suppose saying 'Cross my heart and hope to die' would convince you," she said. "I've told you what happened over and over again. I know nothing else." She offered one hand to the detectives, little finger extended. "Pinky swear," she finished whimsically.

Kozu's face darkened. "Are you friggin' kidding us?"

Mia took her hand back. "No, Detective. I'm just being as ridiculous as you are." She pressed her lips together. "Am I under arrest, or may I go now? My boys are waiting for me."

The two detectives exchanged glances. "Sit tight, Mrs. Koji," Kozu said, and they left her alone in the overheated room, fuming.

* * *

"If you wear a track in the tile, the city's going to be pissed off," Ryo said conversationally to Sage, who was on his forty-fourth trip around the waiting area in the police station. "They'll bill us for it."

Sage glared from his visible eye, but stopped his pacing.

Ryo was sitting on an uncomfortable wooden bench. The waiting area was just inside the double glass doors, which made it a lot easier for you to leave in a bad temper when you realized the desk sergeants were ignoring you and didn't care how long you'd been waiting for whoever they were keeping bottled up in the rooms down the hall.

While Ryo was not the most intuitive of the Ronin—he had earned his reputation for being a hothead for more reasons than just his armor—it had been obvious since they'd left the apartment that Sage was taking this rather hard. "Stop _worrying_," Ryo said. "Making yourself crazy isn't going to help her. Sit down. Really. I'm getting dizzy."

Sage sat. "I feel like we should be _doing_ something."

"We are doing something," Ryo assured him. "She needs us, and we're here for her."

Sage's voice was hard. "In case you haven't noticed, this is a little beyond our usual jurisdiction," he said, waving his hand to emphasize that "this" meant their surroundings.

Ryo only smiled at his friend. Sage couldn't help it. His entire life had been governed by structure and rules. When confronted with demonic, absolute evil, Sage had no problem carving it into chutney with his no-dachi, but skirting the law wasn't his thing.

"Cheer up, man," he advised, giving the blond a playful punch in the shoulder. "Mia wouldn't hurt a mouse. They're just yanking her chain. They'll let her go soon."

By contrast, Rowen and Kento were treating the whole thing like a lark. They returned from an expedition to explore the rest of their current confines with smiles on their faces. Well, Kento was smiling. Rowen was tossing a can of coffee back and forth between his hands. "Hot, hot, _hot_," he complained, his breath coming in little puffs.

"You guys gotta check out the vending machines," Kento said, clutching a double handful of snacks. "Man, I wish _I _was a cop! They have everything!"

"Not everything," Cye corrected, following them. "But a lot. Canned coffee and soda and sandwiches and things. D'you guys want anything—should we get something for Mia? Poor thing's probably starving."

"Haven't they had enough time to ask her questions?" Sage wondered aloud.

"It's better we're here," Cye soothed. "If there's trouble, these are the people who can do something about it. These are the people who are—_ticketing our car_," he interrupted himself in dismay, having caught sight of two officers at the CJ outside the double doors.

"CJ!" Kento cried, tossing his snacks at Cye and bolting for the double doors, visions of the Denver boot dancing in his head.

Cye muttered a curse and handed Kento's snacks off to Rowen, who happily accepted them. "Be right back," he promised, following Kento outside.

Ryo nudged Sage with an elbow. "I want a soda. Come on."

Wordlessly, the blond followed. Rowen loped after them, shoving a donut into his mouth.

* * *

Detective Shiga was having a bad eight hours of it.

He was trying not to think of how it was his weekend to have the kids and the minutes kept slipping away while he was stuck at the job. Another accidental death; at least this one hadn't been torn up like the others. Slip-and-fall—it was looking pretty cut and dried. He hoped they could close the book on it sometime before the sun came up or his ex-wife was awarded full custody.

Shiga wished their witness had seen more, but she was frightened and upset, and stuck stubbornly to her story. The detective's opinion was that she was telling the truth, but she'd been first on the scene and there were no other witnesses, so they'd had to do their due diligence questioning her.

Detective Kozu wasn't faring much better; he was positive the steaks his girlfriend had gotten from the grocery were long cold by now, and he wasn't convinced that the young woman's story rang entirely true. Worst of all, the vending machine wasn't taking his dollar.

"Here, take one of mine," Shiga handed his partner a bill. "Would you calm down?"

"Something isn't right about this." Kozu smashed a fist against the plastic front of the machine, buckling it so the reflections of the treats inside were warped. "We're really supposed to believe that girl is a novelist? I've got neckties older than she is. She can't be more than twenty-five." He jabbed fiercely at the buttons on the machine.

"Shinsai University confirmed her grandfather used to teach there, and I've seen her books in the library," Shiga said wearily.

Kozu winged a brow upward at his partner. "Don't tell me you _read_." A second later, he ducked Shiga's attempt to smack him upside the head.

The taller detective frowned. "I don't think she knows anything. She's sticking to her story and we've got nothing to hold her on. We've got to turn her loose."

Kozu wasn't satisfied. "We should throw her pretty ass in the tank. Then we'll see what she's better at—making smart remarks or keeping a civil tongue in her head. Did you see that outfit she's wearing? That's an expensive suit. My girlfriend's always bitching and moaning that she can't afford threads like that. It's not the kind of thing you just wear out wherever. I'm thinking Miss Hot-Shot Writer in there was doing some extracurricular work."

Unfortunately for Kozu, he made this unkind remark just as the three Ronin rounded the corner and arrived at the vending machine, and the detective hadn't bothered to keep his voice down, uncaring who overheard him.

Rowen's mouth was full of donut, and he couldn't step on Sage's foot in time. The blond's eyes froze over, and he fixed that basilisk stare on the two detectives as he leaned against the vending machine, just close enough to be invading their space. His voice was like the musical purr of a cat to its dinner as he said, "Maybe you gentlemen can tell me where I go to report an attack on someone's character?"

After getting nowhere with Mia, Kozu was in no mood for piss-take. "Who the hell are _you_?"

"I the hell am Sage." The blond never moved from his relaxed position against the machine, but still managed to look positively predatory. Likewise, the other two fanned out easily to surround their target—a practiced maneuver that they pulled off effortlessly without even thinking. "Sage Date."

"His father's first name is Detective," Rowen piped up gleefully. "His ancestor's first name was Masamune."

Ryo knew things were going badly when it was up to _him_ to be the diplomat. "We're friends of Mia Koji. We've come to take her home."

Detective Shiga cast a jaundiced eye over the three young men, looking exhausted rather than intimidated. "You must be her…'boys'," he said dryly.

"You bet'cher badge," Rowen said, straightening up and looking suddenly serious despite the powdered sugar all over his shirt.

"We heard you brought Ms. Koji in for questioning," Sage said crisply, arms folded over his muscular chest. "Unless you've been at the vending machine making slanderous remarks for the last few hours?"

Ryo shot a warning glare at Sage. Turning back to the detectives, he said, "Look, we're Mia's best friends. We know everything about her. I'm not sure how much anything we say is worth, but we can assure you Mia wasn't romantically involved with any of the professors at Shinsai. She takes her work too seriously for that."

"Yeah," Rowen said. "'Sides, she ain't had a boyfriend since we chased—I mean, since she dumped th' last one."

Ryo's warning glare swung to Rowen, who looked sheepish.

Sage's patience had run out. "Is Ms. Koji under arrest?"

The machine rattled, spitting out a stale strawberry bear claw wrapped in plastic. Kozu retrieved the snack, then shoved it into Sage's chest. "Sit tight, Blondie. Enjoy the hospitality." Turning heel, the smaller detective stalked back down the corridor. His partner ambled after him with the dull leisure of someone who'd walked the path too many times.

Sage bristled, but Rowen neatly restrained him with one arm, under the pretense of taking the bear claw. "Ya gonna eat this? Nah, ya don't want this. Y'should give it t'me."

Ryo and Sage watched him unwrap the cake and bite happily into it. Ryo looked almost impressed at Strata's resilience, but Sage seemed mildly bewildered. "Rowen, do you think you could possibly take this _less_ seriously?" he quipped.

Surprisingly, Ryo backed Rowen up. "I think Rowen has a good point. Mia's probably very upset. If we freak out, then she will too."

"Ay, I'm like a brand-new box o' crayons," Rowen said around a mouthful of bear claw. "I am _full_ o' good points."

"I don't like it." Sage's jaw was tight. "I don't like it."

"We don't like it any more than you do," Ryo said. "But if Mia sees us lose our cool, it'll only make her more upset. What she needs from us are calm heads."

"That's what I'm sayin'," Rowen said. "Just pr'tend it's no big deal. Laugh it off. Can ya do that?"

Sage blinked. "I don't know."

The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a pale, rumpled Mia, looking very small between the two detectives, who were escorting her down the corridor towards the boys. Her blood-bright hair was mussed, as if she'd been running her hands through it over and over, and it looked like she'd been crying—her face was smudged in the right places. She didn't see them right away; her gaze was focused on the tiled floor in front of her, as if the task of putting one foot in front of the other required all her concentration. But when she lifted her head and saw them standing there, the look of exhausted relief on her face was precious. "Ryo. Rowen. Sage."

Rowen took the helm with a grin. "Ay, gorgeous. We was just about t'get ya somethin' from the vendin' machine. Whaddaya think? Rolos or those peanut butta crackers?"

"If I eat anything right now, I will throw up," she sighed, rubbing at the shadow under one eye.

"What happened?" Ryo asked gently, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Mia's ocean eyes clouded over with weariness and her lashes drooped. "If I tell that story one more time in this building, I will also throw up. When we get outside and I can breathe real air, I'll tell you."

Sage had apparently decided that the best way to mask his agitation was to say as little as possible, but his feelings bled into his voice, clipping his words. "Cye and Kento are waiting outside with the car."

Detective Shiga pressed something into Mia's hand—the handle of a leather satchel. "You almost forgot this back in the interrogation room."

Mia blinked as she took the satchel, curling her fingers around the handle. She looked as though she wanted to say something, but instead she simply murmured, "…Thank you."

"Don't leave the city, Koji," Detective Kozu said. "We may need to speak with you again. Where can we reach you?"

Mia lost her temper. "_Again_? What could I possibly have left to—"

Ryo interrupted by handing the detectives a phone number scribbled on a piece of paper. "She's staying at my cabin. My apartment's number is on there, too. Ryo Sanada."

Rowen and Sage flanked Mia. "S'okay," the blue-haired Ronin murmured to the girl as the blond treated the detectives to another freezing stare. "We're takin' ya home now."

Detective Shiga raised a brow. Seeing the boys' reactions to their treatment of her seemed to have changed his opinion of her. "And what do you bring to this dream team, Ms. Koji?" he asked, finally getting the "Ms." part right, as if he'd suddenly decided she weren't a complete waste of time.

"Comic relief," Mia answered dryly. "Good night, Detective." Sweeping past him as regally as she could, she exited the station into the tender care of Cye, who spread his windbreaker over her shaking shoulders and anchored it with his arm.

"We've got you," he promised, much like Rowen had. "We're going home now."

* * *

They walked to where Kento's CJ-6 lay comfortably battered in the moonlight. Even in the dark, the stitches where the canvas soft-top had been mended were clearly visible, and the jagged edges of the holes in the bumper gleamed like teeth. The dent in the passenger's-side door was a cup of shadows, and Kento had to kick it a few times before it unstuck and opened.

"Oh for crying out loud, Kento," Mia said. "What have you been doing to this poor…whatever it is? Are we even going to make it home?"

Kento grinned. "Hey, princess. This is as shining-armor as I get. If you want a knight on a noble steed, read a fairy tale. You want a car that'll live through anything, come to me." Stroking the CJ's elongated hood, he soothed the car. "She didn't mean it, Ceej."

There really wasn't enough room for all of them, even in the CJ. Sage flatly refused to let anyone else drive, and Cye took the front passenger seat to keep Kento as far away from the irate blond as possible. The remaining three Ronin sat in the back and Mia ended up stretched uncomfortably across their laps, the satchel clutched in her arms.

"How th' hell did I end up in th' middle?" Rowen asked.

"Because you were dumb enough to get into the car first," Ryo sighed tiredly, moving his arm so that Mia could rest against it more comfortably, cupping his hand around her shoulder. "It's not that long a ride, Ro."

"Sorry," Mia mumbled, face burning with shame. "I'm sorry you guys had to do this."

Immediately penitent, Rowen patted Mia's knee, which was resting on his thigh. "Neva ya mind, gorgeous. S'not a problem."

No one really wanted to ask the question, but Mia wasn't volunteering any information on her own. She was stubborn, and when she had a problem she often kept it to herself, not wanting to make her boys worry. Naturally, this drove the guys crazy, because they wanted to help if they could, but no amount of gentle scolding had been able to break Mia of the habit.

The five Ronin mentally drew straws, and Ryo, of course, lost.

"Mia," he said softly, stroking his thumb over her shoulder. "What happened?"

Mia caught her bottom lip between her teeth. Everyone looked at her, waiting; Cye craned his neck over his shoulder and Sage stealthily focused on her in the rearview mirror. "Hiro was late," she murmured. "I went to the library to look for him, and he was…at the bottom of the stairs. There was something...there was something wrong with his neck. It was…" Her voice dropped to nearly a whisper. "It was broken."

"His _neck_ was broken?" Rowen asked, wincing. "Mia…are ya sure?"

Mia closed her eyes, the memory still vivid against the backs of her lids. "We're talking full-on _Exorcist_ twist. I'm sure."

Everyone exchanged disquieted looks.

"This is _fun_," Cye said whimsically. It was enough to break the tension, and when Mia was the first to laugh, the other guys felt all right joining in, except for Sage, who shifted gears almost violently, his eyes locked on the road. Mia had seen a similar expression on Ully's face once in an arcade when the younger boy had been playing _Pole Position_.

Laughter eased the tight pain in Mia's chest, and a tear slipped past her smile as she relaxed a little. "They think he fell. I mean, that's definitely what it looked like." She sighed. "Poor Hiro. If only I'd been there, maybe…"

"Don't," Cye said softly. "He fell, Mia. It was an accident. There was nothing you could have done."

Mia shook her head absently, staring into a middle distance. "We'll never know now."

The CJ shuddered and pitched forward as Sage slammed on the brakes. Another car slithered across the intersection, barely missing the CJ's bumper.

"Sage, will ya _calm down_?" Rowen said in exasperation. "You do that one more time an' I'm goin' to end up in th' dashboard."

"Sorry," was the muttered reply.

"It's cool, man," Ryo soothed. "Just try not to get pulled over, okay?"

Sage was holding his head very stiffly, and his arms jerked at the wheel and the turn signal with none of his usual grace. "M'fine," he said through gritted teeth, just as another red light forced his foot down on the brake again. Rowen muttered a curse as his nose met the back of Cye's headrest. The three in the backseat were jostled by the sudden movement, and Mia's head struck the windowframe, her foot flipping up dangerously close to Kento's nose. She gasped at the sudden quick pain, so she was the only one in the car who didn't join forces in yelling, "_Sage_."

Mia met Sage's eyes in the rearview for just a second, and he fled her gaze as soon as he was aware of it. "Sorry," he mumbled again. "I'm…I'm sorry."

Feeling like a complete and utter nuisance, Mia huddled miserably across the laps of the three Ronin in the back. Kento sensed her discomfort first. "Easy now," he soothed, wrapping his hands gently around her ankles and pulling her feet onto his lap. "We gotcha. We're almost home."

_Home_; the word had a nice ring to it. Her lashes drooped, head bumping against Ryo's shoulder, once, twice, and then there was nothing but the hum of tires of pavement, the warmth of her friends' arms and an airy dark.

* * *

_In her dream, Mia was in the interrogation room. Ryo, Rowen and Sage were on the other side of the two-way mirror, but they couldn't see her. She called their names, but they didn't hear, even when she beat both her fists against the glass. Ryo was tossing Rolos to Rowen, who was catching them in his mouth, while Sage leaned moodily against the glass, his expression distant. Mia reached to touch his face, the glass cold beneath her fingertips, her pale reflection superimposed on him. _

_Behind her, the battered toys came to life, hopping and slithering out of their basket. Mia heard the hiss of the googly-eyed snake and whirled, circling the table to keep it between her and their advance. The tattered bunny hopped from the sill to the table, bleeding stuffing all over the floor, followed by a ridiculous puppy with an oversized head and a fox with one button eye dangling loosely from its face by a thread._

_They were coming for her. Mia dashed out the door, but it didn't lead to the precinct hallway. Instead, she ran up the stairs in the university library, pursued by the demon toys. Hiro Imamura was at one of the bookshelves, his back to her. Desperately, she reached to tap his shoulder, but when he turned, his head flopped grotesquely to one side, his neck broken. _

She woke with a cry, sitting bolt upright. Rough fabric scraped her bare arm as she moved; the swaying shadows around her refused to resolve themselves into recognizable surroundings. Chest heaving, she blinked to straighten the blurry darkness, head whipping back and forth. A blanket clung to her sweat-dampened skin, and she pushed it aside hastily, whooping in deep breaths of thick night air.

_Water_, her dazed mind supplied, and her parched throat agreed with the sentiment. Willing her limbs out of entropy, she swung her legs to an empty space and groped for the floor with her feet. Instead, her toes touched something warm and solid. Startled, she jerked to one side, weight distributing unevenly. Her foot slid on the strange surface and she pitched off of what she was lying on. Her cry of surprise was drowned out by a hoarse gasp of pain from somewhere else in the dark.

Mia huddled in a miserable bundle on the floor, counting aches and pains. Elbows, knees, shin, wrist hurt; a strangled sob escaped her throat.

A snapping sound, and then the darkness fled from a circle of buttery light. A boy stood sleepily in the middle of it, one hand on the switch of the freestanding lamp, the other running through his tousled blond hair. "Mia? What's wrong?"

Strange what a difference light made. Mia's eyes bounced from a familiar baseball jacket hanging on the closet doorknob to the green laces on the Converse sneakers by the door. Ryo; those things belonged to Ryo; she was in Ryo's apartment.

"Ryo…" she murmured.

"No," the boy said patiently. "It's Sage. Your name is Mia."

She frowned, the cobwebs clearing a bit with mild irritation. "I'm on the _floor_, not _retarded_," she hissed, and was rewarded by a sleepy little laugh from Sage, but it ended in a yawn that he tried to hide behind his hand. "I meant, we're at Ryo's apartment."

"Yes, we are." His gaze was even, but he didn't volunteer anything else.

She glanced around. A blanket and one of the sofa pillows were folded into a makeshift sleeping pallet on the floor next to the sofa—she'd stepped right onto Sage's chest before she'd fallen. A thought occurred to her. "I fell," she said. "So I'm on the floor."

He still wore that patient smile, the kind you use for slow learners at school. "Yes."

"Why are _you_ on the floor?" she asked, looking at how close he'd been sleeping to her. "Why didn't you take the sofa?"

Even as she asked, she knew it was a stupid question—Sage would rather die a painful death than disrespect a lady by making her sleep on the floor, and his look told her not to waste his time with inane observations.

"Thank you," she said softly, chastised by those eyes. "You didn't have to do that."

Sensory memory supplied her with the feel of the rough sofa covering scraping her arm, the carpet under her bare feet—someone had removed her jacket and shoes, leaving her more comfortable in a camisole and her skirt. She didn't remember anything beyond the drive away from the station.

She felt a little tug at her heart wondering which of her boys had carried her up here rather than wake her, and a smile curled her lips.

"Are you all right?" he asked, eyes softening just a bit. "Bad dream?"

Suddenly embarrassed, Mia averted her gaze. "Yes," she whispered.

He didn't ask her about it, and she was incredibly grateful for that. She studied him, preoccupied with the rarity of seeing the normally impeccable Sage Date rumpled and wrinkled from sleep. His hair was sticking up all over his head, and there was a crease in his cheek from having his face pressed against the corner of a sofa pillow. His breathing was still uneven, as if he weren't fully awake, his chest rising and falling beneath a white muscle shirt that showed his hard arms to perfection. Strange how even at his least polished, it was hard to take her eyes off him. "I'm okay," she said softly. "I'm sorry I woke you."

He shook his head. "Don't be silly." Nodding towards the sofa, he extended his hands to her. "Don't stay on the floor. Get up," he said, but not unkindly.

Nodding, she took his hands and let him pull her to her feet. She climbed back onto the sofa while he padded out of the room on bare feet. She willed her heart to stop pounding and glanced at the clock on Ryo's wall. Four AM. She prepared to lie awake for another couple of hours—there would be no comfort, no sleep, until the sun came up.

Sage returned with a glass of water, and she blinked in surprise at his foresight as he handed it to her. "Thank you," she said.

"Take this and drink that down," he said, pressing an aspirin into her other hand. She obeyed, watching the room go wavy through the water at the bottom of the glass as she drank. Sage stood like a sentinel, watching her as if she were an unexploded stick of dynamite.

"I'm all right," she said softly.

Sage's most arresting feature was easily his eyes. He could just about talk with them, and all his moods started with them and spread outward. The droop of lashes, the arch of a brow, the slow darkening of the irises all revealed what he was thinking. Right now a flicker in the winter-cool depths of those eyes told her the mistake she'd made. Sage was a human lie detector; trying to fool him was nearly impossible, even when he was exhausted and the lighting was bad.

Exhaustion settled over her like a blanket. She was afraid to close her eyes, afraid to dream, afraid to be awake.

"How long have we known each other?" he asked, looking somehow weary and sad.

The question nettled her for a second, and photograph-memories flashed behind her eyes as the years rolled back to that first day in the street, five boys falling from heaven to save the day. "I don't know—um—four—five years?"

"Five years," he repeated, those sad eyes searching hers. "Twenty seasons. We've run under more than fifty full moons together. We're your friends, Mia. You don't have to act tough in front of us."

Unable to come up with an answer to the sharp edge of common sense, Mia placed the empty glass on the nearby coffee table and licked her lips, eyes stinging from the harsh light and sudden tears. _Make it go away_, she thought wearily. _Just make it go away_.

Eyes bouncing around the room, she realized she _could_ make it all go away. Thrusting an arm towards the lamp, she turned the switch and plunged the room into darkness once more, just in time for the first tears to slice hotly down her face.

"Mia. Listen to me," Sage said in the dark, a note of impossible tenderness in his voice. "Ryo's in the next room. I'm right here."

Mia's chest tightened at the words he didn't say. _You are safe_.

"I'm going to lay down," he continued, his voice close—he was back on the floor beside her. "But I'm right here. If you need anything in the night, just…step on me again."

She laughed, softly, tearfully in the dark, and let out the breath she hadn't known she was holding. She lay staring up into nothing, the tears dripping down the side of her face to touch her ears and dampen her hair.

"Sage?" she asked softly. "Do you really snore?"

She could hear but not see his smile. "Let me know in the morning."

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Kento referring to Sage as **Takumi Fujiwara **(whom some of you might recognize as Tak, the main character from _Initial D_) is anachronistic—YST aired in Japan in 1988, and **_Initial D_** didn't air until ten years later in 1998, if I remember correctly. This is a nod to the fact that Sage likes to race cars (There's pictorial evidence of this in an OVA—might be _Message_.) An old coworker and I used to "play" Initial D by driving as fast and as crazily as we could over the hilly section of the Island where we worked. Sometimes, we'd play Initial D golf carts.

If I remember correctly, Sage's father is in law enforcement. I have no idea what his actual rank is. I have no conclusive proof that he is actually a detective; that was just creative license on my part. Even if you're not a fan of Sage, if you're bored one day I seriously recommend looking up the history of his ancestor, Masamune Date. It's _fascinating_.

**The Denver Boot:** The city of Denver, Colorado had a _lot_ of outstanding parking tickets in 1953. Their solution to this was the Denver boot, a wheel clamp invented by Frank Marugg in order to help his pals in the police department crack down on delinquent parking violators. I'm not sure if it's used in Japan, but Kento seemed rather horrified at the idea when I told him about it, and raced out to check the CJ. Homer Simpson has already demonstrated the damage that trying to drive with the Denver boot on your wheel will do to your car (and the road) in the _Simpsons _episode "Homer vs. The City Of New York".

Mia makes a reference to William Friedkin's classic 1973 film **_The Exorcist_**when describing Hiro's broken neck; this is a reference to the famous scene in which Linda Blair's head appears to spin 360 degrees while she is possessed by the devil.

I had a _lot_ of fun writing the scenes in the police station—I had no idea that Detectives Kozu and Shiga were going to be so interesting, and I'm so glad I got to know them. I hope everyone else was as entertained by those scenes as the detectives and I were. Except for Mia and the Ronin—we were definitely _not_ expecting them to be entertained. Don't worry, Kozu and Shiga are going to be the least of their problems.

**The Book of Counted Sorrows:** Author Dean Koontz, whose works include _The Vision, Intensity, Dragon Tears, _and my personal favorite from when he was writing under the pseudonym "Leigh Nichols", _Shadowfires_, often quotes from something called "The Book of Counted Sorrows" in his novels. People have beaten their brains out searching for this book. In reality, it doesn't exist—sometimes, Koontz says, he'd be stuck for a verse to open a chapter with, so he began making them up and saying that they came from this imaginary book. "The way you made up footnote sources for fabricated facts in high-school English papers," he says. "Oh, come on, yes you did." Any way you slice it, the poems contained in the imaginary Book of Counted Sorrows are often pretty and mysterious. They can be found sprinkled liberally over Koontz's novels, or if you like, you can read them all at: http/ /www (dot) veinotte (dot) com / koontz / sorrows (dot) html.

**Next chapter:** The boys and Mia still haven't learned that anytime they try to take a vacation, something that requires their attention will inevitably take center stage. Still, they're going to futilely try to pretend this is still a normal week for them. My heroes!


	3. Things That Will Bite

**Author's Introduction:**

When last we left our heroes (I _love_ saying that!) they were bedding down for the night after rescuing Mia from the police, who seemed rather put out that she'd discovered a dead body in the university library. The day is saved, right? They can put this all behind them, right?

Yeah, right. I didn't think so, either.

* * *

**Cross My Heart, And Hope To Die**

_A Ronin Warriors fanfiction by Firestar9mm

* * *

_

**Chapter Three: Things That Will Bite

* * *

**

_Something's wrong, shut the light  
__Heavy thoughts tonight  
And they aren't of Snow White__  
Dreams of war, dreams of liars__  
Dreams of dragon's fire__  
And of things that will bite  
Exit light, enter night_

(**Metallica, _Enter Sandman_**)

* * *

_Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose._**  
The more things change, the more they stay the same.

* * *

  
**

The clink of a fork against a plate woke her up. Morning sun made her squint, and the scent of toast tickled her nose.

Mia realized the blankets she'd thrown off in the night had been tucked around her. Two pieces of buttered toast lay on a small plate next to the glass Sage had given her the night before, which was now filled with juice. Her stomach rippled in anticipation, and she stared with sleepy eyes at the items for a second, curious as to why the toast wasn't making its way into her mouth on its own.

"Don't you want it?" a voice asked calmly.

"Cause we'll eat it, if you don't," another laughed.

Tilting her head on the pillow, Mia saw Sage and Ryo across the room at the dinette table. The former was already dressed, blond hair combed to its usual perfection, sipping at a cup of tea. Ryo, by contrast, was still in a muscle shirt and a pair of boxer shorts, hair sticking up all over his head, shoving the last forkful of scrambled egg into his mouth.

Mia smiled. Modesty had no place in a bachelor pad; here it was _she_ who was out of place and confronted with the devil-may-care reality of _boys_. "Don't eat my toast. I want it."

Sitting up, she stretched her arms over her head, arched her back, and rolled her head, feeling more than hearing the bones crack and pop. Taking the plate of toast and the glass of juice, she walked over to the dinette table.

"Here, Mia," Ryo said, getting up from his chair to offer it to her. "I'm going to shower before it gets any later. There's bread in the bread box if you want more toast."

Mia was quite content to eat the toast she'd been given, relaxing in the simple pleasure of having something warm in her stomach until she noticed Sage had abandoned his tea in favor of watching her lick butter from her fingertips. She paused mid-lick, tongue still out, eyes narrowing at him. He regarded her with his usual basilisk stare, and she let her tongue slide back between her lips before asking the question.

"Why are you staring at me?"

"Selfless concern?" He arched a blond brow. "You slept fitfully last night. You were calling out."

She blushed, averting her eyes. "Sorry if I kept you awake."

"You didn't," he said immediately, picking up his teacup again.

Mia blinked as he sipped, then tilted her head, amused. "Then how do you know I slept fitfully?"

He hadn't been expecting the question, and she was treated to a rare sight—Sage Date choking on his tea very ungracefully. Embarrassment sat on his brow and she could practically see the gears turning in his head as he tried to come up with an answer.

She smiled sweetly, patting the hand that held his teacup. "You didn't have to sit up with me."

He shrugged off the touch, composing himself enough to lift the cup to his lips again, making a dismissive sound that indicated the discussion was closed.

Mia polished off the remaining toast crust. It was as good an answer as she was likely to get from him, and she was used to his detached disposition. Sage was ice and zanshin, but straight as a die.

He drained the cup and put it down on the table. "Now _you_ are staring at _me_."

Caught, Mia searched her surroundings for a believable excuse and settled on Sage's clothes. "I didn't even think you _owned_ jeans."

When Ryo had told Sage the guys' plan for that day, Sage had foregone what was practically his uniform of sport coat and trousers for a pair of jeans and a dark t-shirt under an open, loose-fitting button-down shirt, and even though his sneakers betrayed their newness with how white their laces were, he looked comfortably casual—for him, anyway.

"I am on vacation, after all," Sage said, eyes twinkling. "No hats or shirts with slogans, but I'm sure Rowen can deliver in that department." They shared a smile.

"Shower's free," Ryo called cheerfully, emerging from the bathroom in a cloud of steam and shaking his wet hair out over a red-sleeved baseball shirt. He had no problem with being casual—his jeans were his most comfortable, having been faded from multiple washing and multiple wearing, and the right knee was blown out from a long-ago fall during a soccer game. "All yours, Mia. There's an extra towel and washcloth on the sink. Sage, wanna help me load the gear into the duffel bags?"

"Sure," Sage said, putting aside his empty teacup, while Mia asked, "Gear?"

"We thought it would be fun to go hang out in the park," Ryo explained. "Play a little baseball, maybe. Sound good?"

She beamed. "Sounds great! I won't be ten minutes." Retrieving her overnight bag from where they'd left it beside the sofa, she headed into the shower.

When the boys heard the shower spray hiss, Ryo opened the closet and started piling sports equipment into a duffel bag. "Seems like she's bouncing," he said to Sage. "You think she's okay?"

The blond shrugged. "I'm not sure. A distraction can't hurt her, though. It's good that we're all together."

"That's always good," Ryo agreed, hauling the bag out of the closet. "Here, take this, willya?"

Sage caught the handle of the bag and overbalanced as it threatened to drag him to the floor. "Jeez, Ryo. What do you keep in here, rocks?"

"A dead body," Ryo joked, and then both boys instinctively turned towards the hall, where Mia could be heard humming to herself over the sound of the water.

* * *

It was a perfect day to play in the park. The sun was warm but there was enough of a breeze to keep the air from being uncomfortable, and even the walk through the paved paths to the meadows was entirely enjoyable.

Sage had been right about Rowen's choice of attire—the Ronin of Strata's blue forelock peeked out of the window of a ball cap that he wore backwards. His black t-shirt read, KEEP STARING, I MIGHT DO A TRICK. He was buoyantly cheerful. "It is _gorgeous_ out today," he exulted. "Speaking o' gorgeous…" He hooked his chin over Mia's bare shoulder, his favorite embrace. "How ya doin'? How'd ya sleep?"

"I'm fine." Mia reached around to tug on his forelock affectionately. "Slept just fine."

Sage's eyes flickered at the lie, but he said nothing.

"So you managed to ignore Lumberjack Sage's snoring, huh Mia?" Kento teased cheekily, and the flicker in Halo's eyes became a flare. The blond opened his mouth to snarl at his friend, but Cye and Rowen interrupted as one to save the day.

"_You're_ the one who snores, Kento!" they insisted in unison.

"Took me f'reva t'get t'sleep!" Rowen added.

"I felt like my ears were bleeding!" Cye agreed.

Ryo chuckled, elbowing Sage. "See, the uncomfortable sofa doesn't seem so bad now, huh?"

Mia joined in the teasing. "Please! Try having _all_ of you in the house at one time! The last time I had all of you over, everyone fell asleep on the living room floor. _Most _of you were snoring, Rowen spilled half a glass of beer into my handbag, and White Blaze _ate_ one of my stiletto-heeled shoes."

"Oh, come on, Mia," Ryo laughed. "He had to have something for dessert after he ate your raincoat."

"That reminds me, I owe ya a handbag," Rowen said, scratching his nose sheepishly.

"You owe _me_ a shirt. You threw up on me that night," Kento added.

Eventually, they found an expanse of grass that was perfect for a makeshift baseball diamond. "Gimme your hat, Ro," Ryo said. "It'll be home plate."

Rowen covered his head with both hands. "Hell no. This is my fav'rite hat."

Kento turned to Mia. "Can we use your purse?"

The "purse" he was referring to was actually Hiro's satchel—after a moment's thought, Mia had brought it along to the park with them. She hadn't felt right leaving it behind for some reason. Now she held it out of Kento's grasp. "This is not a purse, and you absolutely may not use it," she scolded. "This is Hiro's. He gave it to me yesterday to look over."

The boys were surprised at the admission. "You should have given that to the police," Sage said. "It's evidence."

"Evidence in _what_?" Cye said. "It was an accident."

Mia blushed, scuffing one flat shoe across the grass. "I didn't mean to keep it. I must have been hanging onto it pretty tight when they brought me downtown and they just assumed it was mine. There's nothing useful in it anyway—just a book and some notes." She tossed the satchel gently under a tree. "I'll figure out what to do with it later."

"It can be home _plate_ until later," Kento said, but stopped at a warning glare from Sage.

After a little further debate, home plate ended up being one of the empty duffel bags, along with first base. Second base was a large rock that was probably going to trip anyone trying to run past it, and third base was a sock, graciously donated by Kento.

"This sucks," Rowen groused. "Th' object of th' game is to _try_ t' hit a triple, not t' _avoid_ tryin' t' hit a triple."

"Don't worry, Rowen," Cye said cheerfully. "You can't hit that well anyway."

"So who's playing third?" Ryo asked.

Rowen looked at his friends. "One, two, three—"

"_Not it_," three boys chorused.

Mia basked in the warm sun, stretching her legs out as she watched the boys argue over who got to play what position. Funny how even the strangest situations could resolve themselves into sunshine, as long as you were safe with the people you loved. It was like having a blanket all around your heart, she thought. Sighing, she closed her eyes and rested against the tree they'd designated as the dugout.

"You can sleep if you want," a voice came from beyond her. She had to smirk at her guardian angel standing by.

"Don't you ever get tired of babysitting me?" she asked, cracking one eye open to look at Sage.

He didn't look nearly as amused as she felt. "I'm not babysitting you. But you didn't get much sleep last night. You kept crying out. If you're tired and you want to rest, go ahead. We'll look out for you."

Mia wondered what she'd said in her sleep to make him look so concerned. "And let Rowen play first base?" was all she said. "No way." She picked up the glove Ryo had loaned her and wiggled her fingers inside it—it was a little too big for her hand.

Sage's eyes darkened, managing to look disapproving without moving any facial muscles. "Suit yourself."

Taking the glove off, she exchanged it for a glove of Ully's that he'd left at Ryo's apartment. By contrast, this glove was too small, but still a better fit than the first, which she tossed at Sage's chest. "There's no one playing shortstop."

She was rewarded with a smile as the warrior of Halo accepted the glove, slipping it onto his hand and flexing the leather experimentally. "Fine, but I'll be bored to death there. Ryo can't hit anyway."

"I heard that, you frilly jerk," Ryo said cheerfully from home plate as Sage and Mia walked onto the field. "I could hit it if Kento could _pitch_."

"That's it. You're walking to first, Wildfire. Hope you brought your athletic cup." Kento wound up threateningly. "One error, coming up!"

There was a moment where no one really believed that he'd do it, and then Ryo squealed, "Kento, _no_!" and twisted away from home plate. Too late—the ball had struck him on the upper thigh.

"_Er-_aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Rowen crowed, pumping his fist in the air like a drum major.

* * *

Since there were only six of them, there was no way to make teams, so everyone just rotated positions and took turns at bat. "We should have brought White Blaze," Kento said, winding up another pitch. "He's the best catcher _and_ the best outfielder out of any of us."

"He's th' best umpire, too," Rowen agreed from the outfield—he'd wanted to be as far away from Kento's sock as possible.

"You're just saying that because he can't talk," Ryo laughed. He was playing first base.

"We couldn't bring him into the city," Mia said at home plate. It was her turn to hit. "The first time he ever stepped paw into Toyama, the National Guard had to be called in. Remember?"

Ryo grinned, remembering that day. "Those chumps were the _least_ of our problems that day."

"He's still a good umpire," Kento insisted. "And he's a better catcher than Sage."

"That does it. The next one's going between your eyes, Kento," Sage said. He was crouched at home plate with his glove, his once-immaculate sneakers now covered in dirt.

"Pitch the ball already," Mia said, dusting her hands off on her jean shorts before picking up the bat. "We don't need an umpire to tell you I'm going to knock it out of the park."

Kento grinned. He'd started out lobbing easy lollipop pitches to Mia, but treating her like a girl had turned out to be a mistake. She'd already lost two baseballs by hitting them too far for anyone to chase. One of them was probably in the street somewhere beyond the park gates. "Big talk, big sis! Just for that, you're getting my Iron Rock Knuckle Ball!"

Winding up, Kento threw the ball. Mia swung the bat, driving the blow from her hips, hands stinging as she made contact with the ball. _Crack!_

"Whatta _shot_!" Rowen exclaimed from the outfield as the boys all jogged back to chase the ball. Mia bolted to first base, hanging a sharp turn around Ryo.

Cye was out in center field like lightning. The ball bounced over a swell in the field, and as he crested the hill, his foot caught on something, sending him sprawling. Sky and grass blurred in his eyes and nose for a second, and his hand slid on something wet as he struggled to stop himself.

Rowen slowed to a jog as he caught up. "Yikes! You okay, Cye?"

Rolling to a sitting position, Cye wiped at his nose. "Yeah, just took a bit of a tumble. Where's the ball?"

Rowen frowned, blue brows meeting over blue eyes. "Hold up. You're bleedin', kid. You're bleedin'."

Glancing down at his pale blue windbreaker, Cye saw that it was splotched with dark blood and dirt. In fact, his hand was wet with it too, and he'd inadvertently smeared it across his nose and mouth. "Oh," he said, confused. "Oh, dear."

The baseball forgotten, Rowen knelt by his friend. "Where does it hurt?"

"It doesn't," Cye said, brow creasing as he stared at his hand, trying to figure out why he wasn't in any pain. "Doesn't hurt."

The wind changed, bringing the scent of spoiled meat over the ridge, and both boys saw what Cye had tripped on—a lump of matted dark fur and bloody flesh that had lately been a dog or other animal. It was difficult to tell even at this range what it had been, but a severed paw lay almost forlornly amidst the carnage, and a length of bone that might have been a muzzle had a few broken teeth still attached.

Instinct forced Cye into a backwards scuttle, feet pushing him along the grass away from the corpse, grabbing at Rowen's sleeve with a bloody hand to pull him along. "Ugh!"

"Whoa, Nellie!" Rowen wheezed in agreement, getting clumsily to his feet and hauling Torrent up with him.

By now, the others had wandered closer to see what was wrong. "Guys, I circled home plate three times already," Mia said, tugging on the straps of her green camisole. "What happened out here? Where's the ball?"

"Everything okay?" Sage asked. "Looked like you fell, Cye, di—what is _that_?"

Cye had his windbreaker over his nose and was trying to wipe the blood away from his green-tinged face. "I think it might be a dog," he said through the fabric.

"Oh, _gross_," Mia said. "Poor _thing_!"

"What _happened_ to it?" Ryo asked, squinting. "It looks like it _exploded_."

"It's that _thing_," Kento said, stabbing the air with a finger. "That thing in the newspaper. The beast what's been eatin' things."

"That's just a story, Kento," Sage said. "The _Sun-Times_ is a rag; they made that up to increase circulation. It probably got into a fight with a bigger animal, that's all."

"A _way_ bigger animal," Kento argued. "Like a _beast_."

"There _is_ no beast!" Sage snarled.

Mia had produced a handkerchief from the pocket of her denim shorts and was wiping carefully at Cye's face. "_Stop_ it, you two," she admonished before turning back to the Warrior of Torrent. "You okay, Cye?"

"Feel a little sick," Cye admitted. "I want to wash my face."

She nodded, patting his shoulder comfortingly. "Right. Let's get out of here."

"We're out of baseballs, anyway, thanks to you, slugger," Ryo teased Mia.

Kento stretched his arms over his head. "Anyone feel like hitting up the diner for lunch? I dreamt about those cheese fries all night."

"I could eat," Ryo said, then turned to Cye. "You okay to eat, Cye?"

Cye's face still had a greenish tinge to it, but he nodded. "I'll be okay once we get there."

They began packing the gear back into the bags, except for Kento, who was hopping around on one foot trying to put his sock back on. Mia had just picked up the bat she'd dropped when she noticed the satchel still leaning against the tree like a good cat. "You guys go on ahead," she said, walking over to pick it up. "One of the books in here came from the university library. I'm going to go return it. I'll meet you at the diner, okay?"

The Ronin groaned collectively.

Sage was the first to say it. "No." He didn't bother to explain the sentiment; his tone of voice and the intensity of his violet eyes made "no" quite enough.

"Lighten up, gorgeous!" Rowen whined. "No one's gonna care if a book's a li'l overdue. Just f'rgetta 'bout it."

"The library probably isn't even _open_, Mia," Cye said. "Especially after…" He trailed off.

"I'll be in and out. Just for a second. I'll leave it on the front desk and then leave," Mia promised. "When the next term starts someone will reshelve it."

"No," Sage repeated, in a warning voice, the kind you use to tell a young child that you're about to count to three.

"Come on, Mia, don't you want cheese fries?" Kento cajoled. Unfortunately, tact had never been one of Hardrock's strong points, and he pressed on: "No one's going to be looking for that book anyway, not if your friend took it out. He doesn't, you know, _need _it…"

It was the wrong thing to say. A shadow flitted through Mia's eyes and her hand tightened fractionally on the handle of the satchel. "I'm going to take it back. I don't want to hang on to it."

Sage treaded neatly on Kento's foot as he crossed in front of his friend to stand in Mia's way. Hardrock winced but said nothing, knowing he'd put his foot in his mouth. Besides, it didn't hurt so badly when Sage was wearing sneakers instead of dress shoes.

"Do I have to letter the word 'No' on my knuckles and knock you out with it?" the blond asked whimsically, smiling disarmingly at Mia.

Ryo smiled, shaking his head as he watched how badly Sage was handling the exchange. A statement like that wouldn't scare Mia at all, because she knew he'd never make good on it. Sage respected women; he didn't hit girls. And it was folly to counter a ridiculous suggestion with an idle threat.

"I want to get rid of it," Mia repeated. "I just want to put it back where it belongs and put this whole thing behind me. Please?"

Sage sighed and held out his hand for the satchel. "Then give it to me. The university's only a few blocks over from here. I'll bring it back for you."

Instead of handing him the satchel, Mia pulled it stubbornly closer to her body. "Why can't I do it? I can do it myself."

Ryo glanced to Rowen, who put his hands up in an I'm-staying-out-of-this-because-I-know-where-it's-going gesture. Similarly, Kento and Cye were pretending to be very very interested in the grass and the sky, respectively.

"I don't want you back there," Sage said simply, still holding his hand out for the satchel. "Not after what happened."

"I can handle it," Mia said. "Will you stop treating me like I'm made of glass? When are you finally going to start believing that I can handle myself? Haven't you seen enough to know that?"

"That's _different_," Sage said, and his friends winced at the direction they knew this was going in. "That's just…_different_."

Mia had heard it all before too. "Here we go," she said, poking the dirt with the end of the wooden bat to emphasize her point. "Go go gadget double standard!"

Sage blinked, his face darkening. But instead of delivering his usual frosty retort, he surprised all present by backing down. "You're right. Fine. Do what you want. Excuse me for _giving_ a damn." Lifting one of the duffel bags stiffly, he stalked towards the path. "I will be at the CJ."

An uncomfortable silence settled in his wake. Mia sighed heavily. "Damn it. Sorry about that, guys."

"Don't apologize to us," Kento laughed. "Apologize to him!"

Mia arched a brow. "Apologize for sticking up for myself? Not a chance!"

"Sage only wants your safety, Mia," Cye said gently. "He doesn't say things like that to hurt your feelings."

Rowen grinned. "Yeah. It's just that he was standin' behind th' door when they handed out tact. I know, cause I was standin' next t' him."

Despite herself, Mia smiled. "I'll be _fine_," she insisted. "You won't even have time to order before I meet you at the diner."

Ryo put a hand behind his head. "Maybe Sage is right," he hedged. "I don't think this is such a great idea."

Mia's face fell in disbelief. "Whose side are you on?"

It was Cye who answered, a little sheepishly. "Maybe…his."

Mia tightened her grip on the satchel, seemingly unaware of the fact that she was still holding on to the wooden bat. "I bet I _beat_ you guys to the diner," she declared, turning in a swirl of bright hair and walking stiffly down the path that led to where she'd parked her Jeep. "If I find another _body_, I'll just _scream_," she added sarcastically over her shoulder.

Ryo smacked his hand lightly against his forehead. "Please tell me that there was no way we could get out of that gracefully."

"At least _she_ has a legitimate reason to be upset—she stumbled on a _dead_ man less than twenty-four hours ago," Cye said as they began the walk to Kento's car. "What's Sage's excuse?"

"Th' same one, I think," Rowen said wisely.

Sage was leaning against the CJ when they arrived, sulking with his arms crossed over his chest. His nostrils flared with temper as he counted his friends, noticing that Mia was absent, but he said nothing.

"You want to drive, Sage?" Kento asked cheerfully, graciously attempting to soothe the blond. "You can drive. Want to drive?"

Sage glanced in the direction they'd come from, shaking his head absently, no.

"I am _not_ sittin' in th' middle this time," Rowen said, climbing into the passenger seat. "One'a you suckas c'n ride bitch." Ryo and Cye immediately waited to approach the car, knowing that whoever moved first would be stuck sitting in the hated position. Sage wasn't paying attention to any of it; his gaze was far away as he looked down the path.

Ryo sighed affectionately, waving a hand at his friend. "Go," he said, knowing exactly what Halo was thinking. "But don't blame us when she screams at you for being overprotective. We'll see you both at the diner. And if you don't like what we order for you, tough."

Wordlessly, Sage loped off in the direction Mia had taken.

"He is so predictable," Kento laughed, getting into the driver's seat and turning the keys in the ignition.

"I am not playing referee to those two all week," Ryo declared, climbing in next to Cye now that no one had to sit in the middle of the back seat.

"Don'tcha worry," Rowen said, smiling from the passenger seat. "They'll work it out. They always do."

* * *

The library was wrapped like an obscene Christmas present, yellow tape bearing the legend CRIME SCENE – DO NOT CROSS blocking the doors.

Mia shifted her weight uneasily from foot to foot as she stood in front of her Jeep. Maybe the boys were right and she shouldn't go in…

The weight of the satchel made itself suddenly apparent to her, and she set her jaw with grim resolve. She was going to put this behind her and enjoy her holiday with her friends. Just _once_, she was not about to let some tragedy or disaster ruin her good time!

Still…there was no need to be careless about this.

When she'd stormed off in a huff earlier, she hadn't realized that she'd brought the baseball bat with her until she'd driven the few blocks between the park and the university and it had rolled from the passenger seat to clatter to the floor as she'd pulled into a parking spot near the library.

Hesitantly, she opened the passenger's-side door and took the bat along with her. She could laugh at herself for it later.

When she screwed up the courage to walk closer to the building, she realized that the door was actually ajar. Pushing it open, she ducked under the tape and slid inside before she lost her nerve. The fleeting thought that she was probably doing something illegal occurred to her, but she pushed it aside. She wouldn't be here long enough for that to matter.

It was _dark_, darker than she'd thought it would be in early afternoon. All the curtains were drawn over the windows to prevent rubberneckers from gawking at the scene, and since no one was working or studying there were no lights on, leaving the room a cave of shadows with the occasional corner of a counter or table catching the barest sliver of light from the edge of the windows. Mia actually stumbled into an empty book-return cart, bruising her thigh and nearly toppling the whole thing over. Muttering a curse, she made her way to the front desk, feeling its smooth surface with one outstretched hand, the other clutching the satchel.

The story probably would have ended there if she hadn't glanced to the side, towards the shadowed outline of the staircase where Hiro had fallen. She could just barely make out the banister in the stingy light. A shiver shook her senses, and she wished irrationally that she'd brought a sweater as if she were truly shaking from cold instead of from nerves.

Something made her fingers release the satchel, leaving it forgotten on the front desk. She just needed to _see_ it. Just _once_. One more time, and then forget about it, forever. Just one more look…

A noise made all her senses stand on end and she drew the bat up in an offensive stance. Maybe she didn't have mystical armor, but she was no slouch—Grandpa had insisted that along with books and legends, she learn her way around a few traditional weapons. While the bat was not as balanced or familiar as her beloved naginata, which was mounted on the wall of the Koji manor, it was still nice and heavy in her hands.

Suddenly all the warnings she'd dismissed were prickling along her skin. Sage's ferocious concern didn't feel quite so suffocating now; she felt a flicker of guilt for how touchy and mean she'd been to him. She desperately wanted to apologize, and an irrational fear that she might not get the chance crackled through her brain.

_Stupid_, she chastised herself. _It's a library. It's an empty, creepy library. Back up your big talk and **look** at it, then get the hell out of here. Prove to them that you were right and you don't need to be protected like a—_

In the midst of this pep talk, Mia choked up on the bat reflexively. That was _definitely_ a noise. Someone was _in_ here with her.

Planting her feet, Mia whirled suddenly and lashed out with the baseball bat. It was a wild swing, but she managed to catch something with the very tip. There was a hoarse gasp of pain.

A familiar gasp—

"It's _me_," he hissed from a crouching position on the floor. "Put the bat up."

"_Sage_?" Mia asked in disbelief.

"Yes." The word was stretched tight with pain. "Please, put the bat up."

"Oh my _gods_." The bat fell from numb fingers as she flew to his side. "Where did I get you? I'm so sorry!" Then she squinted. "You _scared _me, Sage. What are you _doing_ here?"

"Following _you_," he said through gritted teeth. "I…I _tripped. _I tripped on this stupid _cart_…" He glanced back at the offending obstacle, which was resting at an angle from the force of two people walking into it.

Mia pursed her lips. "Yeah, I didn't see it either."

Then Sage smiled, although it was tinged with pain. "I'm glad you brought the bat. That was a smart thing to do."

Mia blinked. "I _hit_ you with it. That's _bad_."

"Yeah, but if I had been a bad guy, it would be good," he said, grunting as he got to his feet and pulled her up by the hand. "You just clipped me. It's not as if you sliced me with that lance you practice with."

"Where?" she asked softly, trying to examine him in the dim light. "Where does it hurt?"

His eyes went soft for a second. "Not now. We should get out of here."

"But—I wanted to see..." She turned back towards the staircase, a bad idea—one of the most effective ways to get Sage angry was to turn your back and ignore him.

Sage sighed heavily. "I'm not going to be able to talk you out of whatever you've got in mind, am I?"

Mia's gaze drifted from his to the space where Hiro had lain. There were still a few pale smudges in the old, pilly carpeting. Chalk outlines were never as easily erased as one would think. They clung stubbornly to the places that had once seemed so safe.

"I…" The longer she stared at the smudges, the brighter they seemed against the dark carpeting. "I wanted to see it." Without her conscious control, her voice had dropped to a whisper.

She'd long suspected Sage of being an empath. She saw her own pain reflected in his eyes before their color frosted over and he slew it with a frown. She never blamed him for his coldness; she knew that he was sensitive and his detached disposition was the only umbrella he had against the weather of other people's emotions.

His pale eyes were steely as they focused on the remains of the chalk outline. "I am sorry about what happened to your friend, Mia, but you must understand that it is not your fault, nor is it your responsibility. There was nothing you could have done to help him; rather, had you been there, you might have been hurt, too."

She gritted her teeth. "I don't expect you to understand."

Sage's blond brows dipped over his eyes and he looked at her, really _looked_ at her. She'd had that intense gaze on her before, and it spooked her just a little—she felt like he could see inside her head, her heart, her hurt. She was afraid to know what he saw when he opened his eyes like that.

He finally answered not with a word, but with an action; he stepped away from her. It was not an insult but a gesture of respect—he was giving her the space he felt she needed to do what she had to do. Nodding, she accepted his blessing and turned away from him, kneeling at the space where Hiro had fallen, touching her fingers to the rough carpet.

The chalk outline was rubbed away for the most part, more proof that the police were not treating this as anything other than an accident. The body had been carried off and there was no real need to preserve the scene despite the tape and the outline and the intensity of Mia's interview at the police station. All of that had been routine and nothing more; soon the finer details of the incident would fade away, like the chalk in the carpet.

So why this sick feeling in her stomach?

She refused to glance at Sage, who was standing guard as she looked around. The weight of his gaze on her felt oddly comforting instead of stifling. He remained a comfortable distance from her, allowing her free rein to assuage her curiosity.

Finally, satisfied, she rose and walked to the front desk, opening the satchel to remove the textbook. A flash drew her attention to the short shelf behind the desk; red eyes glinted in the darkness. Startled, she stepped back and the red eyes followed with a hiss. At first, it looked like two tiny pinpoints of hellish light, then three, then two again. A tiny furred blur darted out of the space, leaping from the darkness between the books on the shelf to the counter. Mia barely had time to see dirty fur, pointed ears, and a bushy tail—was that two tails?—before it was on her, setting its teeth into the sensitive place between thumb and forefinger.

Pain was a nasty surprise. Mia shrieked, and in her panic she flung her hand up, trying to shake the animal off as she stumbled further backwards. The skin between its teeth tore and it tumbled down her chest, tiny claws hooking into her blouse, sharp little feet scrabbling for purchase. Gasping, Mia batted at the loathsome scratching weight with her bloody hand, sending it spinning into the darkness behind the nearby stacks, blood droplets glittering in the stingy light.

All of this happened in the time it took Sage to get to her side—he'd moved forward again as soon as he'd heard her cry. He had her in the shelter of his arms like lightning, his fingers curling around her bloody hand. "What happened? What was it?"

"Couldn't see," Mia wheezed. "A…a rat? Must have disturbed it…_ow_," she cried as Sage examined her torn hand, hissing in sympathy. The edges of the wound were ragged, and it was bleeding freely.

"Nasty," he declared. "We've got to clean this bite. Enough; we're leaving now."

"Wait. I need the satchel…" Much as she hated to argue with him yet again, she tried to shrug off his arm, but it only tightened around her.

"_Enough_," Sage said, softly but forcefully. "Mia, _leave_ it."

She pulled away from him, reaching her good hand for the satchel. "Just let me…"

Sage expelled air through his nose, an unhappy sound. He reached his own hand out. "Come here." It was a command; the tone of his voice told her that he was through playing around with her. Nettled, she looked at her hands. The good hand clutched the satchel; the wounded hand didn't want to touch anything.

Sage solved the dilemma by disengaging her hand from the satchel and taking it from her, then taking her good hand in his. "Keep the wound elevated," he said, his voice gentler. "I'll take another look when we get outside, okay?"

They'd just passed the book-return cart when something large and furry leapt from the top of a bookcase to sink its teeth into Sage's shoulder.

The weight of the attacking animal forced them apart, their hands disengaging. Mia screamed as Sage went down, taken by surprise. But the Warrior of Halo never remained disoriented for long. With a battle snarl, he reached around, grabbing the thing by its scruff and hauling it off him, tossing it away as if it were nothing more than an annoyance. With an almost canine yelp, the animal struck the wall, blending quickly with the shadows before its true shape or size could be determined. Suddenly uncaring about her hand, Mia dove for the satchel, shielding it with her body as she scooped it up. The wound stung as she aggravated it with the movement. Red flashed in the gloom, but it was impossible to locate the sources.

As Sage regained his feet, Mia saw that his shirt was torn to ribbons over his shoulder and chest, and her heart seized—but instead of torn skin and blood seeping through the ruined fabric, she saw the gleam of metal. "What…?" she wondered aloud, but the scene playing out before her answered her question in seconds. With a leap and a small flare of matter-destroying energy, Sage was between her and the place where the thing had fallen, no longer clad in jeans and the ruins of his shirt, but in shining, form-fitting silver and green subarmor.

"What the hell was that?" he asked shortly, his eyes on the shadows that had swallowed the animal.

Mia was still bewildered from pain and confusion as she got to her feet. "I don't know—a dog—a big dog, maybe?" But even as she said it, the rational part of Mia's brain, the part that had seen the reality of Hiro's death in this very room—it knew that big or small, the chances of two animals with blazing red eyes taking refuge in this place were infinitesimal.

Still, there was no time to theorize about it while the thing—or things—was still loose in the room. As Sage turned his head to search for the it, Mia saw a bloody, ragged cut on the side of his strong neck, where the thing's teeth had scored him. The skin around the wound was red and angry. How could all of that have happened in seconds?

"You're hurt." She reached to touch the wound and he hissed, tossing his head.

"Don't—don't do that. Burns," he panted.

"_Burns_?" she asked, even as a throb from her injured hand echoed his pain. The wound felt raw, as if she'd scraped it, and a glance at it showed her the same red, angry blotches.

What the hell was going _on_ here….?

To distract herself from her own fear, she reached for Sage again. "Let me see," she said as he shied away from her. "No, I said _let me see_."

Sage craned his neck, shrugging her gently off. "Stay behind me."

Whimsically, Mia remembered the mountain, she and Sage sticking close together as they were harassed to the front and left by carnivorous animals.

"What would a dog be doing in here?" she whispered.

"When I showed up, the door was ajar. Did you leave it open?" Sage's eyes were scanning the shadows, but there was no sign of the animal.

"No, I found it like that," Mia whispered back. "There's no telling what got in here or when."

"Don't worry," Sage murmured, not looking away from his target. "I won't let anything happen to you."

The satchel was dangling forgotten from Mia's good hand. Something tugged on it from behind and she shrieked, pulling it free and stumbling into Sage, who spun to see what the problem was.

The animal was snarling at them, blocking the exit. One pointed ear twitched and the red lights blinked like two evil eyes before appearing to circle its…face. The light only gave up the barest details—shining off wet, bared gums and vicious fangs and only hinting in places of its size.

"We're boned," Mia quipped, hanging on to Sage's arm. "Nice knowing you, Sage."

"Quitter," he shot back. "We're not done for yet. Stay behind me."

A bass growl—too big a sound for where it had come from, really—trickled from the animal blocking their escape. Saliva dripped from the thing's jaws and hissed when it came in contact with the worn carpeting. Mia blinked as thin wisps of smoke rose from the floor, but she had the sinking feeling she'd had when she saw Hiro's body—trying to convince herself that she was not seeing what she was seeing. Red shone once more in the gloom, flickering above the place where the crimson eyes were slitted hatefully at them.

Something was definitely wrong with this animal.

"_Wait_ a minute," Mia gasped. "It's _bigger_. It's getting _bigger_."

"Don't be ridiculous," Sage said, but there was something thin and nervous in his voice. "It's a stray mutt who came in here to hide, and we disturbed it. I won't let it hurt you. Stand back, okay?"

"No, don't go near it." Mia stepped backwards as he'd instructed, but she didn't like it. "Dogs just don't _attack_ people, it could be injured or frightened or something—there's something _wrong_."

Sage's glance had fallen to the baseball bat, which had rolled forgotten near the book return cart. Chancing taking his attention off the animal for a second, he dropped to his knee to pick it up. Seizing its chance, the animal pounced—not on Sage, but over him, towards Mia, who raised the satchel to block with a little scream.

The thing had barely started to slobber against the satchel when it was knocked out of the air by Sage, who'd retrieved the baseball bat. Snuffling, the animal regained its feet and intercepted his next swing by seizing the bat in its teeth and worrying it.

Panicked, Mia looked around for a way she could help. The dull gleam of a fire extinguisher on the wall presented itself to her, looking friendly behind the door of its case.

_In case of emergency, break glass. _

Glancing back, she saw that Sage now had the ends of the bat in each hand. The animal had its jaws around the center, and he was forcing it back, his feet spread wide to anchor him.

Yes, this definitely qualified as an emergency. Dropping the satchel, she surprised herself with her own boldness and placed her left fist in her right hand, using all her strength to force her right elbow into the glass, shattering it.

It was all she could do not to scream at the pain. Nothing was ever as easy or smooth as movies led you to believe. Ignoring the numbness that thrilled up her right arm and the way the jagged glass scraped her, she forced both hands through the broken case and grabbed the extinguisher, her bleary eyes unable to distinguish the best place to aim in the unforgiving shadows.

Sage had regained the upper hand. Choking up on the bat, he swung at the beast's foreleg and it shrieked, wide open jaws and gleaming fangs giving away its general position. Mia saw her chance as it reared and brought the fire extinguisher up, pulling the pin and aiming the nozzle at its face. Foam frothed between her and the thing and it squealed.

"Back off, Fido!" Mia snorted, swishing the nozzle for maximum coverage. "Sage, are you okay?"

The thing snapped its jaws, unsure as to what this strange substance was, but not looking too happy about it. Shaking its head, it scattered foam like a rabid animal.

The fire extinguisher spit the last dregs of foam, and Mia tossed the can in a spinning arc, striking the beast in the chest. It backed up two more steps, huddling up on itself. Sage swung the pesky book-return cart to the space between and toppled it with a swift kick, trapping the animal.

"Let's go," he said, circling to Mia's side. "It'll be back on its feet and angry as hell in a second."

"I need—" She was on her hands and knees, retrieving the satchel.

Sage seized her hand in his, hauling her to her feet. "Let's _go_, while we still have skulls!"

They took off towards the door like scared wolves, the roars of the wounded beast following them out. Sage kept a tight hold on Mia's hand, practically flinging her past the place where Hiro had died, making sure she kept her feet as he covered ground like a fever dream. Behind them, the animal could be heard venting its rage on the book-return cart; wood splintered and wheels squeaked, and then Sage was forcing the door open and tearing at the crime-scene tape, pulling Mia out into the overheated afternoon.

Sunlight beckoned to the child in her, promised her that the monsters wouldn't get her, not while the day was so bright and Sage had her hand in his. She chanced a glance back over her shoulder, but the paths were empty, just as empty as they'd been the night before.

"Wait," she gasped, pulling on Sage's arm, using her weight to slow him down. "Wait. _Listen_. Hear it?"

He stopped, breath coming in quick short puffs. "What? I don't hear anything."

"Exactly." She glanced back at the building. "Why isn't it chasing us?"

He gave her a look that plainly said he thought she was crazy. "_What_?"

She frowned. "It's _weird_. It jumped on me, bit me, jumped on you, bit _you_, tried to eat my bag, then tried to stop us from leaving. Why isn't it trying to finish the job?"

Concern flickered through Sage's eyes. "Mia, a rat bit you. That other thing…that was a dog or something. They were two completely different animals."

Mia's frown deepened and she caught her lower lip between her teeth. Somehow, she knew that Sage was wrong. Rats didn't have bushy tails like that. The dirty fur, the sounds it made…the feeling of malice and _evil_ that had surrounded it…and the eyes, those two totally aware red eyes…

"Its eyes…" she whispered. "The red eyes…"

"Eyeshine," Sage soothed. "The light was dim. When you shine a little light into an animal's eyes in the dark, you get eyeshine back. It was just a dog, Mia."

She shook her head, feeling hysteria bubble up in her throat. She reached shaking, bloody fingers towards his neck. "No, you're wrong—it _bit_ you, it _burned _you…"

"A scrape," he said, taking her hand in his. "It pounced on me; I struggled with it. That's all."

Mia's head hurt. Every instinct told her that they had just met up with something _bad_—something _very_ bad. And yet, every fear that spilled from her mouth sounded senseless in the face of Sage's calm logic.

"I'm scared," she whispered, the rasp of her voice sounding unnaturally loud in the still afternoon.

Sage squeezed her hand, very gently to avoid hurting it further. "Come on. Let's go find the guys."

He let her hold his hand all the way to where she'd parked the Jeep, something she was very quietly grateful for; every so often she'd shiver uncontrollably, her fingers tightening around his. When they got to the car, she dropped the keys twice, her shaking fingers unable to work properly. She felt Sage's hand on her shoulder as she got to her knees the second time to retrieve them.

"Do you want me to drive?"

She shook her head as she rose, staring intently at the keys as if focusing on them would allow her to hold onto them more tightly. "No. I can do it. I'm okay." She was almost mumbling it, as if she were trying to convince herself, not him. "I'm better now."

But she wasn't better. When she turned the key in the ignition, Mia's head spun. It was too unreal, all this—she in the driver's seat once more, Sage beside her, his subarmor gleaming in the light of the dying day, his eyes drifting to half-mast as he leaned against the window. Just like before.

_The more things change,_ she thought whimsically, _the more they stay the same._

Carefully, she pulled away from the curb, trying to remember the way back to the Starlite Diner. Aloud, she said to Sage, "You had your subarmor. You had your armor with you the whole time."

Sage blinked at her. "Yes. So?"

"So you were expecting trouble."

Sage's lips bent in a smirk. "Of course I was expecting trouble. I was following _you_."

Just like that, the spell was broken. Fear was replaced by outrage, and Sage eclipsed everything else in her attentions, just as he always managed to. Mia tapped the brake reflexively, mouth dropping open in surprise. "What is _that_ supposed to mean?"

Sage speared her with a pale glance. "We've been in Toyama for three days," he said, "and already there have been corpses, both human and animal, trouble with the local law enforcement, and whatever the hell _that_ thing was." Shaking his head, the Warrior of Halo actually laughed. "Boy, have I missed you."

Mia wondered if smoke was filtering out of her ears. "Sage Date," she said slowly, trying to keep her voice level, "you _miserable_…"

He raised his eyebrows at her in a "you see?" expression, that smirk still playing around his lips, and she realized _exactly_ what was happening—knew the pattern they'd fallen back into. Her anger carbonated into laughter, bubbled up her throat and past her lips, and those winter-cool eyes melted just a little as he returned her smile.

"I've missed you, too, you horrible brute," she chuckled, and he relaxed, fitting into his seat as comfortably as if they'd never stopped driving five years before.

* * *

The little waitress with the dark ponytail and the heavily made-up eyes had recognized Kento right away and made a big fuss over the boys, making sure to seat them at the same table in her section. But two of the chairs remained empty, tea in front of one and a soft drink in front of the other.

Cye glanced worriedly towards the door, craning his neck. "Where are Sage and Mia?" he asked. "They're late."

"Maybe they got stuck in traffic," Ryo said calmly. "I'm sure they'll be along soon."

Silence settled over the table, each boy imagining what had happened when Mia realized that Sage had followed her. No one wanted to say it out loud, but eventually Cye gave voice to their collective thoughts.

"Maybe she killed him."

Ryo was the first to laugh, muffling it into a napkin, and it didn't take long for the others to join in.

"What's so funny? We could use a laugh," Sage said dryly as he crossed the room to the table, interrupting the merriment.

The four seated Ronin stared at the last two members of their party. Mia, hair mussed and mascara smudged, was holding her torn hand at eye level, trying to keep it elevated and reduce blood loss. Her elbow was black and blue. The shoulder of Sage's t-shirt was more or less shredded; one of his sleeves was shorter than the other, the torn piece tied tight around Mia's injured hand and soaking up blood. Sage's button-down had somehow disappeared, and blood was drying in a thick line from his ear to his collarbone.

The little waitress bustled up to take orders, but she stopped abruptly, her mouth falling open at the sight of the bedraggled latecomers.

Sage smiled beatifically, holding Mia's chair for her. Sitting calmly at his place, he beamed at the waitress. "Two cups of ice, please?"

* * *

By the time the story was told, the waitress had brought their lunch orders, politely and silently distributing them and then leaving them to their conversation. As soon as they were in relative privacy, the other Ronin barraged Sage and Mia with questions. Sage's eyes flickered to Mia, whose brows were dipped low over her ocean eyes. She was not paying attention to the french fries she was eating; the boys could practically see the gears turning in her head, and Sage knew that she was replaying what had happened to them over and over in her mind, fighting to isolate details and make sense of what they'd seen.

"Give it a rest, guys," Sage warned. "That's the whole story. We're both okay."

"Jeez louise. It took a chunk outta each a'ya!" Rowen said, examining Mia's hand gently. She hadn't protested when he'd asked to see it, drawing it out of her cup of ice to let him look it over. "I toleja it was a bad idea t'go in there. Ya shoulda just stayed with us, gorgeous."

Sage glanced at Rowen. "Leave her alone."

Everyone looked up in surprise at that, even Mia.

"What are ya talkin' about, Sage? You were th' one who threw a fit when she said she wanted t'go," Rowen pointed out, confused.

Sage repeated calmly, "Leave her alone. We're okay, just a little scratched. Everything's fine."

Ryo said nothing, but watched the entire exchange with intense tiger-blue eyes. Everyone could tell he was filing this away to think on it later.

"Maybe it was the—" Kento began, and before he could even finish the sentence Sage was interrupting him.

"_Don't_ say it."

Kento slammed his hands down on the table excitedly, as if he couldn't believe Sage was persisting in his disbelief. "Dude! Come _on_! You saw it up close!"

"We didn't really _see_ anything," Sage said. "I was really more concerned with keeping its teeth out of us to pay attention to what it looked like. All I know is that it was angry and it had very sharp teeth. That could be _anything_."

"That's the thing," Mia interrupted, her eyes focused on the Formica tabletop. Her expression was calm and her voice was soft—she was thinking aloud more than she was really speaking to any of them. "It _could_ have been anything." Something sparked in her eyes, an idea just taking shape in her whirring mind. "It _can_ be anything. It can be anything—a rat, a dog."

The boys exchanged glances.

"Mia. You're not seriously going to tell us you actually believe what—" Sage's eyes jumped guiltily to Kento but he kindly corrected himself by saying "—a tabloid is saying? You're way too smart for that."

She blushed slightly, looking pleased. "You think I'm smart?"

Sage blinked, then his brows dipped over his violet eyes. "Don't change the subject. What happened to us today was a little weird, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's supernatural."

Mia smiled affectionately at the Warrior of Halo. "You always blow off anything you don't get."

Sage blinked. "There's nothing to get. What you're saying is crazy."

"No, it only _sounds_ crazy," Mia argued. "The five of you can call up mystical armor and fought a war against the forces of evil. That _sounds_ crazy, too."

No one could top that.

Cye finally spoke. "Whatever happened, I think it's best that you don't stay in the city tonight, Mia. Why don't you spend the night at the cabin? White Blaze is there and vicious rats and dogs are no match for him."

Sage nodded. "That's a good idea."

"Why don't we _all_ crash at the cabin tonight?" Ryo suggested. "Plenty of room for everybody if no one minds sleeping on the floor."

"We've been sleeping on the floor anyway," Kento chuckled. "Might as well all sleep on the same floor!"

"I'll cook supper," Mia said happily, warming to the idea. "What do you guys feel like having?"

"We'll all cook supper," Cye decided, taking a pen out of his pocket and getting a napkin to write on. "Let's make a list."

* * *

Eventually, it was agreed that Mia, Cye and Kento would do the grocery shopping while Ryo, Sage and Rowen headed to the cabin and dusted it out. Mia was relieved—she'd had visions of spiders and other nesting insects lying in wait for her and White Blaze. Ryo had said that no one had been in the cabin for months.

Kento always made grocery shopping interesting. The first fifteen minutes were usually spent taking the bizarre items he selected out of the shopping cart and putting them back.

"This is _full_ of essential vitamins and nutrients," he argued from behind the bag he was showing to Mia.

"A jumbo-sized bag of Enchiladitos?" Mia asked incredulously, staring at the cartoon nacho with the sombrero and mustache on the front of the bag of chips.

Kento made the bag dance by waving it at her. "Come on, Mia," he cajoled, then launched into the Enchiladitos jingle, waving the bag in time with the tune. "_Enchila-di-tos, they make you wanna eat 'em_."

Mia frowned, snatching the bag out of Kento's hands and putting it back on its shelf.

Cye muttered a curse as he forced their cart down an aisle. "Why do I always get one with a wheel that sticks? Kento, put that down," he added quickly. The Warrior of Hardrock already had a can of Easy-Cheese in his hand.

"It's for the Enchiladitos," he assured them, even as Mia intercepted the can.

"Is there anything you _don't_ put cheese on?" Torrent asked as Mia replaced the can on its shelf next to the Enchiladitos.

"Duh. Ice cream," Kento said, and then his eyes lit up with inspiration. "Let's get ice cream."

Mia pronounced in favor of the ice cream, with an extra gallon for White Blaze to have to himself. A small fistfight occurred in the freezer section; Kento refused to let them buy any ice cream named after hippies or celebrities, prompting Cye to make a Chunky Monkey joke that ended in violence, but Mia sealed the wounds with Magic Shell and everyone left the freezer section happy.

It got progressively more difficult after that. Mia and Cye got into a spirited debate over flat versus ridged chips, and Kento's simple but passionately eloquent argument for Chee-tos was all but lost in the confusion.

"I hope the cleaning is going less violently than the menu selection," Cye laughed as he and Mia shook hands over a bag of party mix and moved on to the far more serious question of chicken vs. fish for an entrée.

* * *

Ryo and Sage stood facing each other, each with a mop in his hand, brushes to the floor at the ready.

Rowen stood holding a sponge between them. "Okay, ready? Wait for it…_go_!"

He dropped the sponge and the other two boys sprang into action, using their mops like hockey sticks to bat the sponge across the hardwood floor. Rowen circled them as they fought for possession, firing off his excited play-by-play.

"Wildfire makes a bold start but Halo forces him up against th' wall! Oh! Wildfire turns an' steals th' puck! Halo's hot on his heels an' cross-checks Wildfire inta next week! No high-stickin', no high-stickin'! Wildfire's got th' puck—he's goin' for th' slap shot!"

Sage tried to intercept the sponge, but slid on a section of floor they'd already mopped and lost his footing, sprawling on his side. Ryo batted the sponge over his fallen friend, where it hit the wall with a wet _smack_.

"Wildfire scores!" Rowen announced. "Halo is down an' Wildfire takes th' goal! Th' crowd goes wild! Here comes th' zamboni!" The Ronin of Strata rode out into the arena on White Blaze's back. The tiger happily pushed his front paws—which had scrub brushes fastened to them—along the floor.

Ryo brandished his mop and broke into a victory dance, but he also slipped on the wet floor and landed next to Sage, who was on his back clutching his stomach, as if the laughing hurt.

Rowen hopped off of White Blaze's back. "After th' post-game wrapup, be sure ta join us for our excitin' special feature: _It Came From Beneath th' Drain_."

"Last one to the bathroom has to star in that one," Ryo declared, hauling himself up from the floor. Sage grabbed the leg of his jeans to slow him down. Rowen sprinted out ahead, only to lose his footing on the newly mopped floor, allowing his friends a chance to take the lead. It was anyone's race by the time they got into the hallway.

* * *

"So who do you think would win in a fight, Mia?" Kento asked as he and Mia stared up at an entire shelf of cereals. "Frankenberry, Booberry, or Count Chocula?"

Mia looked at him like he were dumber than a box of one rock. "Count Chocula. He's got fangs. He'd kill Booberry in a second."

"Booberry is a ghost. He's already dead. I'm getting Rice Krispies," Cye informed them, reaching for the box.

"That doesn't have _any_ marshmallows in it!" Kento whined.

Mia's eyes lit up. "We could put some in," she suggested. "Make treats. Want to?"

"Or s'mores," Cye said with happy inspiration. "It's a _cabin_—we've _got_ to make s'mores."

"I'm on it!" Kento was already heading back towards the baking aisle to look for marshmallows.

As they waited, Mia got on line to wait for their turn at the register. She scanned the magazines at the checkout idly, selecting an issue of _Cosmopolitan_ and thumbing through it. "You know what kills me about this magazine? In order to be flexible enough to get into the sexual positions on page twenty-six, you have to do the trendy yoga exercises on page seventeen."

Cye chuckled. "Sometimes I think you're only pretending to be an intellectual," he said affectionately, chucking her under the chin. "You know what Rowen calls that magazine, right?"

Mia nodded resignedly. "Nympho info," they agreed in unison as she replaced the magazine on the rack, and then the market's intercom went on.

"_Cleanup on aisle four. I repeat, **wet** cleanup on aisle four_."

Mia and Cye pointed wearily at each other, both declaring, "_You_ go get him." After a moment, they raised their fists. "One, two, three, go." Cye put his hand out flat while Mia extended two fingers.

"Aaah, dammit. Okay, I'll get him." Cye loped off towards the back of the store.

Mia grinned. Cye always picked paper—he hadn't beaten her yet. She reached to put the last items from her shopping cart onto the conveyor belt when a tabloid headline caught her eye—the _Sun-Times_. _MONSTERS IN THE STREETS_, it proclaimed, showing pictures of blood-spattered brick and shredded clothing. Remembering what Kento had said about the beast, she thought quickly. Grabbing a copy of the evening edition of the newspaper, she folded the tabloid inside it and tossed the whole thing in with her groceries just as she got to the register. "This, too, please."

The cashier didn't even bat an eye, just bagged the papers along with the chips and dip.

"I didn't _do_ anything!" Kento howled somewhere behind her as Cye dragged him towards the register. "It said _FREE SAMPLE_!"

* * *

Three Ronin Warriors sat with their backs against the wall. Each clutched a weapon, but these were not blades or bows. Sage held a broom, Ryo a mop, and Rowen a feather duster. Still they cowered, unsure of these weapons' ability to defeat the menace that lay in the room beyond.

Around the corner, a cockroach twitched its antennae.

Rowen set his jaw. "Okay. One, two, three—_not it_," he said quickly.

"Not it," Sage echoed almost immediately after.

"You lose, Ryo," Rowen said.

Ryo frowned. "Ah, dammit. Okay, here I go." Brandishing his mop, he got to his feet and charged into the room with a blood-freezing battle yell.

The cockroach bravely stood its ground. Unfortunately, it didn't see White Blaze calmly padding up behind it. The tiger crushed it thoughtfully with one massive paw, then glanced beneath the pad to see his handiwork.

Three Ronin Warriors breathed a collective sigh of relief.

* * *

The three shoppers marched in line towards the Jeep, each laden down with the spoils of their hunt. A crinkling brought Mia's attention to the last of their party. Kento had lagged behind, his concentration diverted from walking and focused more on rummaging through the bags he carried.

"Kento! Stay out of those bags!" Mia scolded. "It's not that long until supper. We just left the _diner_!"

"We left the diner over an hour and a half ago, and I barely ate anything there," Kento whined. Cye rolled his eyes, remembering the two sandwiches and cheese fries Kento had put away as the Warrior of Hardrock pleaded with Mia. "Please? Just one little bite of ice cream."

The supermarket's parking lot had been full, the hours before suppertime being a busy period in the store. Mia had had to park the Jeep further away, across the street from the park they'd spent the morning playing in. Kento stared longingly at the gates as Mia directed them to pack the grocery bags in the back of the car.

"There might be a hot-dog stand in the park," he piped up hopefully. "Please?"

Mia frowned, her arms folding to cradle her breasts. "Okay, but we can't be too long or the ice cream will melt."

"Yay!" Kento cheered, dashing across the street and through the park gates like a little kid. Cye and Mia followed at a more leisurely pace, shaking their heads amusedly at each other.

* * *

"Aw, man," Kento whined. After walking past the dog park, the carousel, and the meadow, they'd finally happened upon a hot-dog cart at the bottom of a flight of stone steps that led to a small man-made lake. But the cart's vendor was nowhere to be seen.

"Tough luck, Ken," Cye laughed, picking up a flat stone and skimming it across the small pond. "You'll just have to hold out until supper."

Mia could see from the shifty look in Kento's eyes that he was considering raiding the cart. "N. O. No," she said, taking her keys out of her pocket and jingling them. "Let's go."

"_Come_ on," Kento wheedled. "Like they're going to miss one lousy hot dog. And a soda. And some ketchup."

Licking his lips, he jokingly feinted towards the cart. Mia took it as a serious attempt and moved to block him. The result was that Kento knocked into her, harder than he'd meant to. Mia fell ungracefully to the ground, losing her grip on her keys and sending them into the lake with a splash.

"_Tell_ me my keys didn't just end up in the drink," Mia groaned, letting her head drop against her outstretched arm.

Kento smiled sheepishly. "I am _so _sorry."

But Cye brightened. "I'll get them." He showed Mia his palm, then flipped his fingers like sleight-of-hand, producing a blue sphere like magic. In the late afternoon sunlight, it was hard to tell if the object caught the glow of the dying day or gleamed with a light of its own.

"You guys just carry those around with you no matter what, don't you?" Mia asked with a smirk.

Cye smiled angelically. "Force of habit." The same flare of energy she'd seen around Sage in the library earlier was disguised this time by the splash as Cye dove smoothly into the lake. His subarmor glinted like scales beneath the water.

Kento helped Mia to her feet apologetically. "I'm so sorry, Mia. I was just playing with you."

She patted his arm. "It's okay, Kento. Cye will get the keys and then we really should get back to the car, okay?"

The water rippled and then broke over the triumphant Warrior of Torrent. "Got them," Cye said cheerfully as he resurfaced, the wet keys jingling as he shook them.

"Yay!" Mia cheered.

Cye pushed himself onto his back, floating in the water as easily as if he were reclining on a sofa, a grin on his face.

"How's the water, man?" Kento called.

"Come on in, it's fine," Cye laughed, folding his arms behind his head.

Kento looked around shiftily, then reached into his pocket and produced a sphere identical to Cye's except that the faint light it gave off was orange instead of blue. "You think this'll help me float or weigh me down?" Hardrock chuckled before the brief blinding light encased him in his own subarmor.

Mia frowned, hating that she always had to be Big Sister and spoil everyone's fun, but if they didn't get to the cabin soon the guys were going to be impatient _and_ the ice cream would be melted beyond rescue. "No. Come on, you two, out of the pool, adult swim only." She put one hand over her eyes like a visor, but still squinted in an expression of disapproval.

"Come on, Mia, you don't have to be on your best behavior out here," Kento teased, heading towards the lake. "This is vacation, remember?"

"Kento, catch!" Cye called, tossing the keys to Kento, who caught them and looped them around his metal gauntlet.

Something stung Mia's hand. "_Ow_," she cried, waving the appendage and searching for the source of the pain. Before she could locate it, another sharp pain bit at her bare shoulder. More stings danced across her forehead, and she looked up, still shielding her eyes with one hand.

Across the lake, a restaurant catered to the upscale clientele of the nicer areas of the city. Twink lights danced out over the water, strung on cords and powered by electrical cables running from the light poles all over the park. A cable stretched from the restaurant patio across the lake to a pole beside the water; something that looked like a squirrel was atop the power line, and a fountain of sparks was falling from the transformer to the ground where Mia was standing. "What the…" she began, and then the question was replaced by a realization that this squirrel had _two_ tails, and its fur was blotched with ugly, dark patches. Red eyes slanted almost contentedly above needle-sharp teeth, which were bared and working furiously.

Mia had seen those teeth before—but they'd been much _bigger_ when they'd been dripping corrosive saliva in the library hallway, bared in a hungry grin at her and Sage.

_It's that **thing**—_

Mia's earlier bad feeling exploded into full-blown panic. It seemed comical somehow that something so small could scare her so much, but she knew that it might not stay that small much longer, and every cell in her body screamed that they were in danger, that something terrible was about to happen.

"Cye," she said levelly, afraid to raise her voice and alert the monster. "Get out of the water."

Cye, who'd only had one ear above water, resurfaced and shook droplets from his hair. "But I haven't—"

"Get _out_ of the water, _now_," Mia repeated, edging away from the light pole.

"What the…_hell_…?" Kento had seen the thing.

"That's it," Mia said out of the side of her mouth. "That's the thing that attacked us in the library."

Kento blinked round eyes up at the tiny monster, and then he did something that made Mia want to smack him—he _laughed_.

It started with a tiny disbelieving hoot. Then a small chuckle. Then a robust guffaw, and he doubled over as if the mirth hurt him. "_What_?"

"Kento, hush!" Mia said, one eye on the beast and one on the Warrior of Hardrock.

"You've got to be _kidding_ me," Kento snickered. "You and Sage ran for your lives from _that_ thing? It looks like a _toy_."

"It was _bigger_, Sage got second degree burns from its spit, and it _bit_ me," Mia snarled, still standing still and tense as a doe prepared for flight. "Now _stop laughing_ and don't make any sudden moves."

"Chill, gorgeous, Hardrock's got you covered. Watch this." Disregarding Mia's instructions completely, Kento jogged to the light pole and began climbing the metal spokes that were used for maintenance.

"Don't you dare!" Mia hissed, grabbing at him and coming up with a handful of air.

Kento's armored boots clanked against the metal spokes as he climbed the light pole. His intention was to chase off, or at least startle, the funny-looking little animal, but it surprised him by advancing instead of retreating as he ascended. Most small animals scattered when a human got too close, but this critter actually scampered from the wire to the pole as Kento approached. Opening its tiny jaws wide, it clamped them around a higher spoke with a little clink and tried to worry it, spittle flying and slopping over the metal. Kento chuckled as it repeated the process on the adjacent spoke, its furry cheek pressed against the wood surface of the pole. It bared its fangs at Kento with a little hiss, as if issuing a challenge.

By now, Kento was close enough to take a swipe at the animal. It danced out of his reach, bouncing back to the power line, where it swayed, watching him with…

…red…

…eyes.

Kento blinked. Surely that wasn't possible. Balancing as best he could with two feet and one hand on the metal spokes, he swung a gauntleted hand at the little animal. "Get lost," he told it mildly. "Jeez, you're an ugly little booger, aren't you? Go chase some pigeons and quit scaring my friend."

Deciding he needed a little more height, he stepped up another spoke and grabbed onto a higher projection. Reaching his left hand out, he swiped at the creature again—and the metal spoke he was hanging onto wobbled, sending him off balance. As he gripped tighter, the bar came away from the wood, and Kento dropped it without thinking. It landed with a _splash_ in the lake, and Cye called, "Watch out, Kento! What's going on up there?"

"Come _down_ from there, Kento!" Mia called nervously.

Kento wasn't listening; he was wide-eyed, trying to steer his flailing arm towards the only other spoke within reach, trying to keep his feet steady. Latching onto the spoke, he redistributed his weight, but the spoke came free from the wood immediately.

From their low vantage point, Mia and Cye couldn't really see what was going on, but they _did _notice when Kento dropped like the stone he was named for.

"Kento!" Mia shrieked, dashing towards the light pole. Cye was moving too, but before he could get to solid ground, Kento's fall was stopped as suddenly as it began.

Further down the light pole, the metal spokes were still firmly anchored to the wood. One of them had caught a slat in Hardrock's subarmor, halting the warrior's fall awkwardly. More shocked than anyone by the reprieve, Kento flailed helplessly in the air for a second, searching for a foothold. Unfortunately, the spoke above had come loose and fallen; the ones below were out of his reach. He was trapped, unable to get purchase and just out of range to attack the animal, which chattered away on its perch. The noise sounded absurdly like laughter, sparking fury in Kento's brain. "Come—here—in my—_hands_!" he growled, waving his hands wildly but uselessly at the creature, which responded by chittering louder.

Had Kento been able to turn around and look at the light pole, he would have seen what caused the spokes to loosen—a damp, smoking rivulet of saliva had eaten away at the wooden pole, and even now it was dissolving its way further down.

"Stay back," Kento called down to his friends. "Get back and keep your heads down."

The animal made a sound like an outboard motor, and a third red light flickered briefly over its gleefully malicious gaze. The tiny rumbling sound gave way to another chattering laugh.

Kento wasn't laughing anymore. He suddenly understood Mia's seemingly irrational fear of the tiny, ridiculous animal. It had trapped him up here and was working on severing the power line, but Mia and Cye were too far below to see the true danger of the situation.

He couldn't call his armor from his precarious position. Luckily, he didn't have to. He had Mia's keys.

There were a lot of keys on Mia's keyring—two to unlock her mansion's door, one for her Jeep, one for her filing cabinet, and one for her mailbox; she also had the key to Ryo's father's cabin as well as keys to both Ryo and Rowen's apartments (the latter had lost seven sets of keys on the streets of Osaka.) Eight keys, all sharp-toothed and strung on a metal ring and a long lanyard that bore the Shinsai University colors.

Keys, while not pre-eminent among the tools of war, are a nasty missile weapon. Swinging the lanyard like a flail chain, Kento got the keys whirling at a lethal speed above his head, trying to gauge the right angle. When he thought he had it, he struck out, letting the keys stretch the length of the lanyard and scoring a direct hit on the animal's flank, the center of mass. It squealed, a big noise for such a little creature, then lost its balance on the wire, tiny paws scrabbling at the cable to no avail, scoring one more tear on the insulation before it dropped like a stone, blood drops glittering in its wake. It hit the water with a splash, another thing that seemed too big for its small size.

Kento muttered a curse when he realized it wasn't dead—a blood trail on the surface and a shadow beneath marked that it was moving, and very fast.

Cye surfaced, looking nervous. "What the hell was _that_?" he asked, shaking water from his hair.

"What was what?" Mia asked nervously, still crouching off to the side. "How big was it?"

Before Cye could answer, the earlier work of the animal's teeth and claws paid off, and the cable it had been perched on broke.

There was a horrid _snap_, a sizzle and a rain of sparks. The severed power line lashed the air as if it were alive, and then its wounded, flashing tip plummeted towards the water like a shooting star from hell.

"_Cye_!" Mia shrieked, using her back foot to push herself from her kneeling position into a hard run towards the water, one hand stretching towards the Warrior of Torrent. Seizing his metal gauntlet, she threw all her weight back towards the ground, knowing that getting him clear of the water was the goal and anything after they'd have to make up as they went. Unprepared for the sudden tug on his arm, Cye overbalanced, one foot slipping on the concrete lip of the pool just as the power line touched the surface of the water. There was a flash of light, and the current leapt from the pool and arced across the toe of Cye's metal boot.

Mia was so startled by his scream that she clutched his hand instinctively, and she barely had a chance to register a searing pain across her palm before the power of the jolt forced them from the water.

Falling was not an accurate word to describe being hurled from less than ten feet. Mia's arm was nearly torn from its socket as Cye was thrown heels over head past her, his grip on her hand dragging her along for the ride. Concrete burned the skin from one shin and then air whistled through her ears and her vision blurred.

Every bone in her body bounced and blood exploded into her mouth when they hit the ground. The world pinwheeled for a second, and then the weight of Cye's subarmor stopped their skid across the abrasive concrete. Mia ended on her back, staring up at the impossibly fluffy clouds. How could things be so beautiful when death was following them around, nipping at their heels? Cye's hand was still clasped in hers, convulsing around it as the aftershocks of the current sent spasms through his body.

_Oh my gods. Cye. _Her heart squeezed tight at the thought of what might have happened to him.

"Cye?" The name came out in a spurt of blood—she'd bitten through her lip when the current had sent them sailing. Squeezing his hand, afraid to turn her head lest her brains fall out or she see he'd been fatally wounded, she kept her eyes on the clouds and repeated, "Cye? You with me?"

He answered with a sound somewhere between a whimper and a groan. "Did somebody get the license number of that…_squirrel_?"

Her sigh of relief was wet with tears. "Can you move? Is anything broken?"

Kento was shouting down to them. "Are you guys all right? Cye? Mia? _Cye_! Answer me, buddy!" His voice was taking on a slight edge of hysteria.

"Down here," Mia said, but she couldn't seem to force her voice above a whisper.

"We're fine," Cye groaned, although he didn't sound fine. He tried to haul himself up to a sitting position without letting go of Mia's hand.

"Great," Kento called sarcastically. "Save _me_." Now that the immediate danger had passed, he was feeling silly about his current predicament. Realizing that his friends were in no shape to perform a rescue, he sighed. "Okay. Hail Mary time," he said, swinging his weight back and forth in hopes of jarring his subarmor loose from the spoke. By this time, the corrosive saliva had eaten its way further down the pole, loosening the spoke enough that Kento's plan worked—the spoke came free and down came Hardrock, landing so hard that he was forced to one knee to distribute the shock. Ignoring the pain, he hurried to his friends, who were huddled together, checking for injuries.

Mia turned her head to Kento as he approached, her bright hair frizzed and wild. "Oh Kento," she sighed. "Are you okay? Did it bite you?"

"Forget about me," Kento said, a little roughly, kneeling beside them. "Can you guys move?"

Cye swung an arm. "Good. You?"

Kento's eyes were shimmering, and his laugh was a little damaged, but he tried anyway. "Your hair," he giggled. "You guys look like…"

"We stuck our fingers in a socket?" Cye asked, smiling encouragingly.

Kento giggled wildly. "Stuck your finger in a socket, that's a good one! Hee hee…and there I was, completely useless, dangling up there like, hee hee, bait on a fishing line!..."

Mia ruffled his hair, a static shock snapping the air between them at her touch. "Feel that," she said quickly. "See? We're alive. We're all right, Kento!"

His lip trembled for a second, and then he bravely forced the fear away, grabbed her hand and kissed it. "Damn skippy, gorgeous. But next time get attacked where I can reach, 'kay? I want in on the action, too!"

Mia and Cye exchanged smiles. "Will do, Ken," the Warrior of Torrent said.

"I think it's safe to say this expedition was a failure," Mia sighed, trying to finger-comb the snarls out of her hair.

"Not a failure," Cye said, his face growing deadly serious beneath his wild, static-teased hair. "We are alive. We win."

Seeing the wisdom in his words, she nodded, subdued, and reached her hands out. Each Ronin gave her one, and they squeezed, shivering and fear passing between them like the electricity itself.

And, like the electricity, a scream soon jolted them back into movement.

"Oh my _gods_! Did you _see_ that?" A girl was standing at the top of the stone stairs, her hands on her cheeks in shock, staring at the two Ronin and Mia. More voices joined the first.

"What's going on? Are those guys all _right_?"

"I saw something _flash_—"

"Should I call an ambulance?"

Mia watched as a crowd of people began spilling down the stone stairs towards them. "Is it too much to ask that the monster comes back?" she asked out of the corner of her mouth, eyes wide with a rabbit-in-the-headlights look.

"Get the car," Cye whispered back urgently. "We'll think of something."

"But—"

"Go _now_," Kento agreed, giving her a little push to her feet. Mia sprinted down the path, a little giggle of hysteria rising in her own throat, but a lump of tears and bile stopped it from getting to her lips.

* * *

The girl who'd screamed had dizzy eyes and pale pigtails that seemed to move on their own, waving like striking snakes as she glanced back and forth between the two armored boys. "Are you guys okay?" she asked rapidly. "Should I call 911?"

"We're cool," Kento promised as more people approached. "Nothing to see here."

"Is that _metal_ you're wearing?" a boy asked, pushing his glasses up his nose with his index finger. "Isn't it a little early for Halloween?"

"He's a _stuntman_," another girl shrieked excitedly. "They must be filming a movie!" Whipping her head dizzily from side to side, she asked, "Are we on camera?"

Kento exchanged a look with Cye, who was still too stunned to speak.

"Yes!" the warrior of Hardrock exclaimed with sudden inspiration. "Actually, it's…it's an early scene for _Armor Plated: 2_!"

"Ooooooh!" a few girls squealed.

"I never even heard of _Armor Plated: 1_!" a guy called skeptically.

Kento gave the speaker a look that plainly said he thought the guy was dumber than a box of one rock. "Really? Dude, where have you _been_? It was a blockbuster hit in America."

"Can I have your autograph?" A girl thrust a pen and paper under Kento's nose. With a flourish, he signed it and handed it back to her.

"Tony DiNozzo?" the girl cooed. "Hi, Tony. I'm Miho!"

Kento kissed the girl's hand, making her giggle.

"Yup, that's the name, don't wear it out. This is my co-star, Derek Zoolander." He clapped Cye on the shoulder, ignoring the way Torrent winced. "Looked pretty realistic, didn't it?"

"What's the film about?" someone called.

The last thing Cye had wanted was attention, but now a crowd was amassing around them. Kento warmed up to his role, his hand gestures getting more flamboyant and his voice getting deeper and more macho as he described an imaginary sequel to an imaginary film that sounded like the summer flop to end all summer flops.

"Listen—Tony," Cye said through gritted teeth, clamping gauntleted fingers onto Kento's arm. "Don't we have to meet with Morshower to negotiate our salaries?"

Kento snapped his fingers. "You are so right. We've got to book."

A disappointed moan sounded from the ring of girls around them, and Kento smiled. "Don't worry, ladies, you'll see us again on the big screen!" Kento cheered. "Now, where is that good-for-nothing assistant of mine?" Spotting Mia at the edge of the crowd, he snapped his fingers at her. "_Pepper_! You lazy girl, you were supposed to bring the car around fifteen minutes ago! Chop chop!" He finished this off with a camp flounce, then added, "And bring us some more donuts and coffee! I'm not paying you to sit on your ass."

"Come on, Tony," Cye growled, hauling on Kento's arm.

Allowing himself to be dragged through the crowd, Kento called, "Remember, everyone—_Armor Plated: 2_! This time, it's bulletproof!"

Cye reached his hand for Mia, and the three of them hustled out of the park, like young children fleeing from a sudden rain shower. The Jeep was parked at the curb beyond the gate, promising sanctuary.

Once they were safe in the car, Mia ran a hand through her tangled russet hair and turned to her boys. "Are you two all right?"

"Just some scrapes," Cye said. "If you hadn't spotted that cable when you did, I'd be microwaved Torrent by now." Chuckling, he brushed his knuckles against her arm. "Thank you, Mia."

Mia smiled and tossed her head, embarrassed. "No big. What about you, Kento? You okay?"

"Good as gold," the Hardrock warrior promised, knocking on his armored breastplate.

"Good," Mia said. Without warning, she lunged forward and grabbed his ear, pulling.

"_Owwwwww!_" Kento howled.

"_That's _for calling me your assistant and snapping your fingers at me!" Mia hissed. "You pompous, macho, Ronin—_diva_!"

"Ow! Ow, ow, ow, ow," Kento yelped. "Cye! Do something, man!"

After a moment's thought, Cye did do something—he grabbed Kento's other ear and twisted.

"_Owwwwwwwww!_" Kento bellowed. A few dogs in the alley nearby perked their ears in sympathy.

* * *

By the time Mia, Cye and Kento reached the cabin, the other three boys had finished cleaning and the cabin was spotless—which was more than could be said for the bedraggled grocery shoppers. When they arrived, Ryo and Rowen were in the living room, playing a card game that they halted the minute they saw the state of the latecomers. Sage was coming from the shower, dressed in clean clothes and finger-combing his hair; he also stopped in his tracks at the sight of his friends. Cye was pale and his hair was sticking out at odd angles. Mia looked like she'd had a horrible perm and her lower lip was dark with a blood bruise where she'd bitten through it. Kento was the least battered of the three, but his eyes kept darting nervously to Cye and Mia as he helped them bring in the grocery bags.

"So, Axl, Slash, how'd it go this afternoon?" Ryo asked, taking in the sight of Mia and Cye.

Cye had had enough for one day. "Oh, _shut up_, Ryo, y'bloody cheek," he snarled, stalking past his friend.

"He's cranky," Mia hedged, forcing a smile.

"What _happened_?" Sage asked.

"A squirrel—" Mia began, then stopped. Looking at the confused faces around her and realizing how ridiculous she sounded, she faltered. "I dropped my keys," she said softly. "Kento and Cye helped me get them back, but there was…there was an accident."

Rowen and Sage exchanged glances. Ryo looked as though he wanted a more in-depth explanation, but Cye took charge at the sight of Mia's traumatized expression. "Why don't you take a long hot shower, Mia? We'll put the groceries away and when you're done maybe you'd be nice enough to start supper?"

Mia brightened at the idea of being useful, even in something as simple as a culinary capacity. She relaxed and nodded. "Okay."

When she was gone, Ryo tried again. "What happened, Cye?"

Cye sat wearily down, running a hand through his static-teased hair. "Wait till she's in the shower. Kento and I will explain."

* * *

As Mia cleaned up, the boys unpacked the groceries while Cye and Kento explained what had happened. For once, Kento wasn't ranting about beasts; he was oddly quiet, only speaking to corroborate or add to what Cye was saying about a small, strange animal and the events that had led up to their near-electrocution.

"A _squirrel_?" Rowen asked, arching a blue brow as he arranged cereals in a cabinet. "A squirrel made you guys look like you've been playin' th' Raiders? An' losin'?"

"I'm just _saying_ squirrel because I don't _have_ a better word for whatever it was," Cye growled, tearing almost ruthlessly at the plastic that covered a roll of paper towels in frustration. "I don't _know_ what it was."

"It had red eyes," Kento said. "I swear on my grandmother's grave, it had red eyes. And big teeth. _Pointy_ teeth—don't squirrels have, like, buck teeth? These weren't like that."

"I saw it beneath the water, but I didn't get a good look because it was moving so fast," Cye continued. "It was _swimming_, and squirrels can't swim…can they?"

Ryo's tiger blue eyes bounced to Sage, who was staring at a container of milk instead of putting it away. "Sage?" Wildfire asked. "Are you okay?"

Instead of answering, Sage turned to Kento. "How big was it? _Exactly_?"

Kento shrugged helplessly, tugging on a ash-colored forelock. "Dude, I don't know. Little. You know, we were thinking it was a squirrel, but like I said, the teeth…and the ears, they were sort of bigger."

"Bigger like a dog's?" Sage asked. "Sort of pointed?"

Kento brightened. "Yeah. Yeah. Like that. The nose, too, it had sort of a…_snout_. Squirrels don't have _snouts_, do they?"

"And a big tail, right?" Sage said. "Big and always moving?"

Cye answered this time, pointing his finger in an a-ha motion. "Yes! I was at a bad angle because we were below it, but for a minute I thought it had _two_ tails." Torrent blinked.

"And it was noisy," Sage finished. "Really loud."

Kento and Cye exchanged glances, nodding at the blond.

Ryo was beginning to wish he'd seen the thing as well; he was feeling hopelessly out of the loop. "Sage?" he asked. "What are you saying here?"

The blond's eyes were distant. "The library…"

"You're saying you think this was the same thing?" Cye asked, eyes wide.

"I'm not saying anything," Sage answered sharply. "Yet."

"Mia thought it was," Kento said, remembering Mia's fear of the little animal. "She said, 'It's that thing'."

Sage looked briefly upset. "It doesn't matter. She was scared. I told her we wouldn't let it hurt her. I promised."

Ryo was rummaging in the last grocery bag, his hand closing on the newspaper that hid the tabloid Mia had purchased. Knowing how much giving his word meant to Sage, he felt the need to reassure his friend. "Don't worry, Sage. We'll keep your promise. Whatever it is, it's gone now, and we're all here. Let's just start dinner, okay?"

Footsteps could be heard down the hall. Ryo let go of the newspaper without looking at it, leaving it in the bag and shoving it aside. "Happy thoughts, guys. She's coming."

* * *

"You are my fav'rite person _eva_," Rowen sighed happily, leaning back in his chair and patting his stomach. "That was awesome."

Mia grinned from across the table. "Thank Cye and Kento. They decided on it…with their fists."

Cye and Kento offered their laughing friends big, cheesy smiles.

White Blaze echoed the sentiment from his place at Ryo's feet, licking his chops happily. The big cat got up, nosing around to see if anyone hadn't finished their char-grilled tuna, tail whacking happily at the table till the plates and silverware shivered.

"Who's ready for dessert?" Kento asked happily. "We got ice cream."

White Blaze was ready; he reared up to put his massive front paws on the table, his weight pulling the tablecloth so that the plates slid hazardously towards the edge of the table.

"Whoa!" Cye rescued the last of his char-grilled tuna, while Sage calmly saved the plates from falling to their destruction.

"Down, White Blaze!" Ryo chuckled. "Down, boy. You'll get ice cream."

Instead of scolding, Mia just smiled at her furry roommate. "Don't you worry, I got you a whole gallon, just for you," she cooed.

"He's gonna tip the table, Ryo, do something!" Kento said, holding the edges of the table down.

"You spoil him," Ryo said to Mia, pretending to be stern.

"I _knew_ you were going to say that," Mia laughed.

"I'll get it," Sage said, getting up and heading into the kitchenette.

"Spoons, too, Sage," Mia called after him, while White Blaze gnawed happily on the sleeve of Ryo's shirt.

There was no answer; after a pause, the others exchanged confused looks. Kento called out hopefully, "Sage? Ice cream?"

Mia got up from her chair and headed towards the kitchenette, her first instinct immediately being to help. Stopping at the doorjamb, she noticed Sage standing in the kitchenette, the ice cream forgotten as he leafed through something—the tabloid she'd purchased earlier at the supermarket. The newspaper she'd hidden it in lay in two separate sections on the counter.

"Hey," she said, blushing as she stepped forward. "Silly, huh? I saw in it the checkout line in the supermarket. I was just curious—"

Sage's brow was creased in thought as he flipped through the glossy pages. "Have you read this yet?"

Mia blinked, getting over her initial embarrassment. "Um—no. I hadn't gotten the chance. Why?"

"Come on," Sage said resignedly. "We should talk to the others."

* * *

Kento pouted as they returned to the dining room. "I do not see ice cream."

Sage slid the open tabloid onto the table so everyone could see it. "Put your stomach on hold for a second and look at this."

The Warrior of Hardrock's eyes lit up as he leaned over the magazine. "All right, the _Sun-Times_! Maybe they've got a new article on the beast!"

Cye's eyes narrowed at Sage. "_Now_ are you saying you think it's the same thing?" he asked, repeating his question from earlier.

"I want to know what _you_ think," Sage said. "You saw something today, too." The Warrior of Halo turned to Mia. "You, too," he said, a little more gently. "You're the only one who was with all three of us when we saw…whatever we saw."

"You said it was a dog," Mia said warily. "You said—"

Sage looked mildly embarrassed to be admitting, even subtly, that he might have been wrong, but to his credit he continued. "Forget what I said for a minute. What do _you _say?"

Mia braced her hands over the table, her bright hair spilling over Kento's shoulder as she leaned above them. She, Cye and Kento all peered at the two-page spread, examining the color pictures while Ryo and Rowen crowded close to look as well. Sage waited patiently, arms crossed over his chest, frostbitten gaze steely. "Is it what you saw today?"

The pictures were less than helpful—one was a blurry long shot of an alleyway at night, the bricks spattered with a dark substance that was probably blood but just as easily could have been chocolate syrup. The focus was obviously the lump of bloody fur and flesh huddled near a garbage can; most likely an unfortunate alley cat. But in the background, an indeterminate furry blob could be seen fleeing the scene. If you looked close, the bushy tail appeared to be forked in two. Another picture focused on a dirty sewer grate, but there were two blurry points of red in the dark depths, and a faint glare above them, as if there might have been three sources of light, not two.

Cye sighed, rubbing a hand across the back of his head. "I hate to say it, but it could be. It really could be."

Sage frowned down at the tabloid. "Damn it," he sighed.

"What?" Cye asked. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong is that I think it's what I saw, too," Sage admitted.

All the boys looked at Mia, who nodded.

"We don't know for sure," Sage pointed out quickly. "It's just a possibility."

Bolstered by the support of her earlier theory, Mia smirked at Sage. "You just don't want to admit that Kento might be right about something."

Rowen snorted a laugh into his hand while Kento beamed. "Thanks, big sis!"

Sage put his hands out in a "whoa" gesture, trying for order. "I'm _not_ saying Kento is wrong. All I'm saying is I think we should _think_. I'm not saying something didn't attack four of us today, I'm just saying we don't know _exactly_ what it is."

Rowen immediately snapped into tactician-mode, nightsky eyes going steely as he glanced back and forth between his friends. "'Kay. So what _do_ we know?"

The five Ronin and Mia were the sort of people you'd want to have in a round-table discussion in a place like a college classroom or a police squad room. "We know that something—or things—attacked Sage and Mia in the library," Cye said, "and then Kento, Mia and me in the park."

"It bit me," Mia supplied. "When it was very small. It had very sharp, pointy teeth."

"Like the squirrel-thing," Kento jumped in. "It had _fangs_."

Mia winced and clutched her throbbing, bandaged hand in agreement. "I think it can make itself _bigger_," she said. "Or at least _look_ bigger."

"That doesn't make any sense," Ryo said.

"_None _of this makes any sense," Cye countered. "Squirrels can't _swim_, either, and this one did. I saw it swimming. Swimming _fast_."

"_Maybe_ squirrels can't swim," Rowen declared. "Maybe they can, but they just _don't_."

"The point is that they _don't_," Cye pressed. "Even if they could, they don't. And a _dog_," he continued, looking to Sage, "would not attack a fully grown man unless he was hurt or unconscious. But it _did_ attack you, Sage."

"It attacked me because I struck out at it," Sage persisted, but his voice betrayed his own faltering confidence in his theory.

"Okay," Ryo jumped in, hoping to be useful. "Why did you hit out at it, Sage?"

A sudden flush colored Halo's cheek. "It attacked Mia. It was going after—" He stopped, blinking, embarrassment forgotten as he remembered. "It wanted her bag."

"_Hiro's_ bag," Mia clarified. "It tried to take it from me. When you dropped to the floor, Sage, it came _over_ you after the bag. It didn't want _either_ of us; we were just in its way."

"I repeat: this doesn't make any sense," Ryo said, rubbing at an unruly eyebrow in intense frustration. "If only I'd been there."

"Careful what you wish for," Cye said darkly, looking over the gory pictures in the tabloid. "I don't think we've seen the last of this thing."

Mia took charge, tossing her hair over her shoulders and putting on a matter-of-fact expression. "Okay. I know it _sounds_ crazy, but I really think we're all talking about the same animal here. We all noticed the same things about it—sharp teeth, red eyes—"

"I saw _three_ eyes," Kento said. "I mean, the thing was right in my face and I _was_ a little panicky, but I could swear I saw three eyes. Anyone else get that impression?"

After a beat, there was a soft sigh and Sage raised his hand.

"I figured I'd just made it up," the blond said tiredly. "It was right on top of me; it was trying to get through me to Mia and I was…I wasn't thinking clearly." That flush crossed the bridge of his nose again.

"Out of all the senseless theories we've got here, Mia's senseless theory makes…well, the most sense," Cye said, cheering up a bit. "Guess there really _is_ a murderous beast on the loose!"

Ryo's brows shot up. "_Whoa._"

Kento was fidgeting, his eyes dancing with glee. Noticing this, Sage treated his friends to a rueful smile. "Go ahead, Kento. You can say 'I told you so'."

Unable to help smiling, Kento clapped Sage on the shoulder. "Nah, that just doesn't quite cover it, buddy," he said cheerfully.

He lasted about a minute before breaking into a triumphant grin and adding, "But I _did_, I told you so, you schmuck."

Sage smirked. "Don't push it, Hardrock."

"No friggin' way," Rowen said. "I don't b'lieve it!"

"What, that there's really a beast?" Ryo asked, wishing he'd been there to see it too. He was feeling hopelessly out of the loop.

"No, that Kento wuz _right_ about somethin'!" The Warrior of Strata grinned cheekily.

Kento frowned. "_Dead_," he declared, pushing his chair back and rising menacingly. "You are so dead, Strata."

Cye restrained Kento in a half-nelson almost calmly, as if he were so used to it that he didn't even need to concentrate any more.

"So what do we do?" Ryo asked, while Rowen dodged around him out of Kento's reach.

"_Do_?" Cye asked, holding a struggling Kento steady effortlessly. "What we _do_ is stay the hell out of its _way_."

"What!" Kento forgot about killing Rowen and broke free of Cye's hold to smack a fist into his open hand. "This thing's been _killing_ people. I say we take it out."

"I think I agree with Cye," Mia said slowly, as if she were thinking. "At least for now. We don't know enough about this thing yet to make any kind of concrete plan of attack. We need more information."

Kento gave his "big sister" an eager, pleading look. "That's where _you_ shine, beautiful. Get your books! Look stuff up!"

"Enough," Sage said sharply. "Whatever we're _doing_, we're not doing it tonight. It's late, and I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm dressing my wounds and going to bed."

Ryo nodded. "Good idea. Sleep'll do us all some good, and in the morning, if we still feel strange about it, we can talk it over some more."

Eventually, everyone agreed with this, even Kento, and they dispersed to their various nighttime routines. All except for Mia, that is.

Hiro's satchel lay against her overnight bag as though it were snuggling up to it. Now she padded across the floor and retrieved it, bringing it back to the empty table. It was much easier to spread out across the larger surface here than it had been in the coffee shop, and she tried to look at everything with fresh eyes, as though something would jump out and give her a clue as to why a strange, unreal animal that shouldn't exist would want to take something in this bag away from her.

Still, no matter how she studied the notes, the result was the same—she wasn't even sure how what the pages contained could make up a thesis project, let alone something bigger. And the only person who could have answered the ever-growing list of her questions was dead. No one would ever be able to understand this book, not now or ever again.

Mia blinked, the whimsical drawings of nekomata and kitsune seeming to scamper across the pages in her exhaustion. She closed the cover gently on all of Hiro's careful notes and understood fully, for the first time, the waste of his life.

A sigh from the doorway caused her to look up, tongue sticking in her mouth as she saw what was there. Sage was leaning against the doorframe like an ad for expensive cologne, hair tousled adorably, his chest bare and his eyes sleepy. Mia had to force herself not to follow the lines of his muscles down his torso to the waistband of his loose pants, where her imagination was tempted to take over.

Forcing her eyes to his face, Mia managed to discipline her lips enough to form words. "What is it, Sage? Do you need something?"

He shook his head, eyes pale and drowsy as he looked her over with a tilt of his neck.

Mia felt her own lips twist in a playful smirk. "Just wanted me to see how good you look without your shirt on?"

Blood rushed to Sage's face. He straightened, as if suddenly aware of his unintended posing against the door, and the angry mark on his neck was more clearly visible. "The burn doesn't like anything touching it. Every shirt I have has a high collar, and it rubs against the wound. I'm trying not to aggravate it."

Mia was briefly disappointed at his instantaneous return to severity, but she smiled. "I was only teasing, hotstuff. Lighten up."

Sage's lower lip dropped in the slightest pout and his flush deepened, only reinforcing the careless male-model look. "Speaking of burns—"

"We weren't," she interjected cheerfully.

Sage's eyes narrowed as he continued. "Speaking of burns, I came here to check on yours. How is your hand?"

She shrugged, unwrapping the gauze and turning in her chair to show it to him. "Hurts, but it's just a scratch. You should worry more about yourself. Yours is a lot worse than mine."

"Halo takes care of me," he insisted, his eyes the deep violet of an autumn night sky. "It's you I c—" He stopped, correcting himself, "It's you I'm worried about."

"I'm okay," she said softly. "Thanks to you."

Those winter-cool eyes warmed over for the sparest of seconds. "Are you?" His eyes dropped to the books spread out over the table.

She gave a little chuckle, flipping the notebook open once more, the pages overlapping the glossy tabloid beneath it. "Want to know a secret?" she asked. "I sort of wanted it to be a dog."

A moment of perfect understanding passed between the girl and the Warrior of Halo as he answered. "Me, too."

"You were right, though," she said after a pause. "We've all had a long day and…"

She trailed off, something on the pages finally making sense to her; she was nearing the end of the section where Hiro had summarized his collected legends about demons and all the pieces that made them up, forked tails and strange eyes…

_That's it_, she realized, a small possibility snapping into place in her brain. But before she could vocalize it, she was distracted from the notebook by Sage's sudden closeness, the way his cheek brushed hers as he leaned in to see the book, one arm on either side of her, large hands braced against the table. He'd seen the connection too. "What the _hell_?" he demanded, his voice soft but ferocious.

She didn't understand _how_ she knew—but as soon as she said it aloud, the more she was sure she was on the right track. "There's something here." She tapped a finger on the notebook for emphasis. "Hiro knew about the strange animal we've been seeing."

Sage snatched the tabloid up, his icicle eyes scanning the print like frozen radar. Snapping a finger against the page, he said, "There. It says the first incident was reported over a month ago. When were those notes written?"

Mia shook her head helplessly, flipping notebook pages. "They're scattered all over. Hiro wasn't exactly the most organized person in the world—he had a system, but it's erratic. It must have made sense to _him_, but I can't really understand it."

The tabloid crinkled in Sage's fist. "Do you think Hiro was studying this…this _thing_?"

Mia chewed her soft lower lip. "It's a thought. And it would make sense that he was trying to tie it to ancient legends—I mean, _we _can't agree on what this animal looked like or what it really is. A _demon_ makes more sense than anything else we've come up with so far." She leafed rapidly through the pages, growling softly in frustration at herself. "And now there's something out there, killing people…" Her gaze drifted to the satchel. "And trying to steal Hiro's research."

Summer-bright eyes met winter-cool ones as she looked up at him. "This was no accident. There's someone else involved here."

"There's no proof of that," Sage said, not liking the direction this was going in. "Let's just say you're right and Hiro _was_ trying to study demons. Who's to say that he didn't stumble across this one, and it didn't want to play nice with him?"

Mia shook her fox-colored head. "Demons don't push people down staircases and try to make it look like an accident. If Hiro had discovered a demon and it turned on him, it would have just torn him to pieces, like those homeless people, those animals." She placed a hand on the tabloid, fingers brushing his. "And a demon wouldn't try to steal the evidence and cover it all up. Don't you see? There's a _person_ behind this."

Sage fought to calm himself, his grip on the magazine releasing slightly. "You," he said softly, "are certainly never boring, I'll give you that."

Before she could ask him what _that_ was supposed to mean, Ryo appeared in the doorway, grinning. "Can you two keep it down? Some of us are trying to get some sleep out here." Arching a brow at his friends, his expression turned serious. "You guys okay?"

"Maybe this can't wait till the morning after all," Sage said. "Are the others still awake?"

Ryo's brows knit. "Yeah. What's going on?"

It was Mia who answered. "The plot's thickening."

In a matter of minutes, they were all gathered in the dining area again, each fighting to be heard over the others.

"I told you," Kento was saying. "I told you this was serious and no one believed me and—"

"I still say we should just keep out of this," Cye maintained, shifting his weight from foot to foot uneasily. "This hasn't got anything to do with us and we should just stay away from it."

"The monster isn't doing this on its own," Mia insisted. "Someone's _controlling_ it. Someone's out there doing something _evil_, and that _is_ our business."

"It doesn't matter _who's_ controlling it," Kento argued. "The beast is the bigger concern here. We have to take it out, pronto."

"Someone who knew what to _do_," Mia shot back. "Someone who knew _how_ to call it. The demon may be dangerous, but whoever's giving it orders is the real monster here. _That's_ who we need to aim for. If we get him, the attacks will stop."

"How would we even _find_ them?" Cye interrupted. "We wouldn't even know where to _start_. This is a bad idea."

As soon as he had an opening, Sage joined the conversation with his characteristic deliberate thinking. "Why does there have to be a difference, Mia?" he asked. "If we take out the demon, that's great. If we come across the person who summoned it, we can stop them. Either way, the killing ends."

"It _won't_, don't you see?" Mia sounded weary. "This person isn't screwing around. That thing nearly killed us today."

For the first time since the argument had started, Cye blanched. He had no answer for that.

Strengthened by her conviction, Mia continued. "We were lucky today. That thing knew what it wanted to do in the park and nearly pulled it off. And before that, it was hiding out in the library. If Sage hadn't been there, I'd be toast and they'd be calling it an accident, just like those animals, those dead homeless people in the news. Just like Hiro." Sighing as her adrenaline ebbed away, she held up the notebook in her hands. "This is serious stuff, guys. Every scholar, monk, priestess, professor, and archivist agrees on one thing—calling up demons is a _big_ deal. It's not like dialing a number out of the phone book. A lot of elements have to align for the ritual to work, and it's _dangerous_. If something goes awry, it can have a _very_ negative effect on the spellcaster." She bit her lip. "Someone risked a _lot_ to do this. Whatever their goal is, they want it very badly and they're not afraid to kill anyone who gets in their way."

"We got in its way, and we're still here," Kento said encouragingly.

Mia blinked at her "little brother". "Come on. If you sold your soul for something—if you wanted it that badly—you'd kill to protect it. Wouldn't you?"

Silence settled over the group, each thinking of the things they loved best, the things they'd risk more than their lives for.

Sage spoke up. "What's our next move?"

Cye turned to him, incredulous. "Are you serious?!"

The argument broke out all over again.

"Even _Sage_ thinks we should take care of this," Kento said.

"We don't have a _plan_," Cye argued.

"_Stop_ it," Mia cried. "We can't fight amongst ourselves."

Rowen pushed himself into the middle of the group. "You guys are actin' like a buncha—"

"All right, listen," Ryo yelled, the better to be heard over the conflicting arguments. It was the first time he'd spoken since they'd reconvened. "Listen to me, everyone."

All eyes turned to Wildfire.

"Here's the deal, guys," Ryo continued. "Whatever else is going on, we know for sure that there's a demon out there, and five will get you ten that it's behind those weird mutilation attacks. The police don't believe in demons. They won't investigate that angle, and even if they did, they aren't equipped for it. Whether the monster's doing this on its own—" He glanced over at Kento, "—or someone's controlling it—" Here his gaze swung to Mia, "—it's dangerous and it needs to be stopped. Well, you know what I think? The gang's all _here_. Let's _do_ something about it."

"So much for a peaceful vacation," Cye said, smiling ruefully. "Would someone promise me a cup of hot tea when all this is over?"

"I'm serious," Ryo continued. "Right now, _we're_ the ones with the power to do something about this. And we might be the only ones who can. Anyone who wants to bow out can do it now, but I say we fire it up." The Ronin of Wildfire thrust his hand out palm down in the middle of the group.

Surprisingly, the first agreement came from Sage, who silently but determinedly placed his hand over Ryo's. He didn't smile, but there was a familiar gleam in his eye. He was ready to go to battle.

"_Yeeeeeeeeeee_-haaaaaaaaah!" Kento cheered, clapping his hand down so hard that the other two boys winced. "To arms, baby!"

Cye rolled his eyes. "Here we go again," he sighed, but put his hand firmly on top of Kento's. "To arms—if we absolutely _have_ to."

"We absolutely hafta," Rowen said, nodding and adding his hand to the pile. "Someone needs t'show this demon how we do things downtown."

And then, all eyes, all smiles turned to the last person in the room—the last member of the team.

"What about you, gorgeous?" Rowen asked, eyes twinkling. "Are ya in or are ya out?"

Mia felt her chest tighten with a sharp, sweet pang of happiness, even in such a troubled time. Miles and months be damned. Wherever these boys were, she was home and time had no meaning.

She curled her hand on top of theirs and squeezed. "Friends together," she agreed. "To arms."

* * *

In her dreams, Mia was in the university library again, her boys and White Blaze crowded around her, all waiting for her to explain her theory.

_"Get your books!" Kento entreated. "Look stuff up!"_

_Yes, she thought, reaching for a book on the shelf. Pulling it out, she heard a hiss and red eyes flashed in the gloom before teeth set themselves once more into her hand._

Mia sat up with a gasp. Her hand was throbbing, most likely from being pressed beneath her body as she slept. She unwrapped the gauze from it, examining the wound. In the morning, she'd rewrap it.

Combing her fingers idly through her hair, she glanced around the cabin and tried to slow her breathing, feeling safer already at the sight that greeted her. Her boys were lying in blanketed clumps on the cabin floor all around her, and she smiled at the sounds of snoring coming from the far corner, the bundle that contained not Sage, but Kento, dead to the world with a sheet twisted around his chest.

_That'll be something to tease him about at breakfast_, Mia thought gleefully.

Sage, by contrast, was lying quietly beside the low sofa they'd insisted she take. Mia thought that after she'd stepped on him that first night at Ryo's, he'd have wanted to stay as far away from her as possible, but he slept soundly on the hardwood floor, his face as calm as ever as if the music of the spheres were playing behind his closed eyes. Ryo was cuddled against White Blaze, who was sprawled out perpendicular to the blond with his nose tucked under one paw. All Wildfire's troubles were smoothed out beneath his tangle of hair; every so often his nose would twitch as he chased dreams. Mia suppressed a giggle; the boy and the tiger looked remarkably alike as they breathed deeply in the slow rhythm of slumber. Cye was curled up nearly into a ball, holding his pillow around his head, perhaps to drown out Kento's snoring.

The roll of blankets closest to the door was empty. Pulling the hem of Ryo's borrowed "Milk Ball" t-shirt down over her lycra shorts, Mia padded outside on bare feet, opening and closing the cabin door as quietly as possible so as not to wake the others.

Someone was sitting on the grass, arms stretched out behind him, hands braced against the ground. His face was tilted up towards the night, the moonlight carving his profile into high relief.

"Rowen," Mia said, and the boy turned bleary eyes to her, startled by the sound of her voice. Rubbing at one eye with long fingers, he said, "Mia. Hey. Was just sittin' out heah, stargazin'. Couldn't sleep."

The beautiful longbow at his side told the real story, and Mia's heart burned with a feeling of incredible sweetness. The Ronin of Strata had been standing guard for all of them.

"Next time, wake one of us," she suggested softly, walking closer, the grass cool and soft under her bare feet. "We'll take turns." Sinking down into the grass beside him, she arranged Ryo's borrowed shirt around her thighs. "I can't sleep either. I'll sit with you."

He slanted a grateful smile at her, then turned his gaze back to the heavens.

"It is beautiful, isn't it?" Mia sighed.

"You can't imagine it unless you've been there," Rowen answered, his eyes hooded and dreamy, the sparkling tableau above them reflected beneath his lashes.

"Can you believe it?" she asked, bumping her shoulder against his. "The earth spins and drags everyone with it, warriors and tigers and girls who tag along, but the stars stay still and watch it all go by."

"Nah," Rowen said, ripping up a clump of grass and tossing it aside. "Stars don't stay still at all! They go everywhere."

"How do you figure?" she asked, twirling a blade of grass between her own fingers.

"Stars go everywhere," he repeated. "They're on the surface of water, an' in girls' eyes, an' in wind chimes an' champagne n'stuff. Stars are all around us." He pulled at another tuft of grass, as if he were suddenly maddened by being earthbound. "Makes me just feel sorry f'r everyone who doesn't know what it's like. Sometimes, I really think that people only fight an' kill each other 'cause they've neva swam th' Milky Way, an' they dunno what starlight smells like." His heaven's-blue eyes stared formlessly into the grass, his thoughts far above in space. "If they knew…"

Rolling her weight to one hip, Mia moved behind the Ronin of Strata, wrapping her arms around his chest from behind, cradling him between her knees and pulling his head back to her shoulder so they could both look up. "You'll be back up there someday, Ro. All the true warriors rest in the stars." She pointed to three stars in a line and the surrounding points of light. "See? Orion the Hunter. He rises every night, and the scorpion will never sting him again." A wave of her hand indicated another small line of stars. "Sagitta, the arrow that slew the dragon Tiamat." She smiled, pressing her cheek against his temple. "You'll be there, too, shooting stars across the night. Heaven's archer."

His hair tickled her face as he relaxed against her. "Could charm a black hole inta lettin' ya jump out, talkin' pretty like that. So, ya like 'em?" he asked, as someone might ask, Do you like my new shoes, or, Do you like my car?

"I love them, Rowen," she assured him. "They're wonderful."

"Pick one," he said, one hand straying to his longbow. "Pick a star an' I'll shoot it down for ya."

She smiled. "You pick. Bring me a good one."

"Bring ya th' very best one," he promised. "Th' prettiest one for ya." He pointed. "What d'ya think of that one?"

Mia giggled, cuddling her friend. "Silly. That's the moon."

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

**"Go go gadget double standard!": **Mia is putting a spin on a line from the 1983 cartoon _Inspector Gadget_, which my cousin and I used to watch as kitts in Brooklyn; when Inspector Gadget would use one of his mechanical arms or weapons, he would say the command "Go go gadget (whatever)."

Mia can be seen practicing with a **naginata **in one of the OVAs (I think.) A naginata is a pole weapon with a curved blade at its tip and a metal cap at the other end to counterweight. They were used by samurai, but later on became associated with fighting women, which is totally cool. It also makes sense—the samurai women were expected to be able to defend their homes while their men were away. And I'm sure they did a hell of a job of it, too! Naginata eventually became used for sport instead of for battle, being viewed as a tool of etiquette and discipline. I wish I owned one, but till I can get one I'll have to settle for my no-dachi replica and the nifty wall mount my neighbor made for it out of Brazilian mahogany.

**Enchiladitos, they make you wanna eat 'em: **Late at night, Star likes to watch **"Aqua Teen Hunger Force"** and laugh her fool head off. **Enchiladitos** and their very catchy jingle make an appearance in the season 2 episode, "Super Bowl". (sings) _Ay yi yi yi, I am Enchiladitos…_

**Frankenberry, Booberry, and Count Chocula:** Ahh, the breakfast cereals of my youth. Now, those esteemed marshmallow monsters are hosting _Zombie Idol_ on _Robot Chicken_.

**"Nympho info":** While I'm not exactly sure where the term originates, we called _Cosmopolitan _magazine "nympho info" when I was in college. I hate women's magazines (except for _Vogue_; I love to look at pretty things, even if I can't afford them) and I especially hate _Cosmo_, which is so obsessed with sex that it's actually boring. And I obsess enough about my weight without magazines telling me that everything I eat is an indulgence and eating it is an act of weakness. That's complete slosh. I'm going to keep my dating details to myself, and I'm going to eat cookies whenever I want. Whatever! I'll do what I want!

When the crowd approaches Kento and Cye in the park, Kento makes a series of anachronistic references to pop culture. He tells them his name is **Tony DiNozzo**, a reference to a character on one of my favorite television shows, **_NCIS_**_. _ He also introduces Cye as **Derek Zoolander**, a reference to the main character of one of my sister's (and my) favorite Ben Stiller movies, **_Zoolander_**. (Cye is _really really really good looking_!) Finally, Kento refers to Mia as **Pepper**, a reference to the ever-efficient **Pepper Potts**, assistant to Tony Stark in the entirely enjoyable movie **_Iron Man_** (which is of course based on the comic books of the same name.) The film **_Armor Plated_**, naturally, does not exist. Only Kento could come up with such an idea!

**Ryo's cabin:** I do not know the floorplan of Ryo's cabin. I've seen some pictures of it in art books, but I really don't know what the rooms are like so I just made it up. For some reason I see it having a kitchenette, not a full kitchen, and being mostly open-plan.

**Axl and Slash: **At the sight of Mia and Cye's electric-shocked hair, Ryo makes a reference to **Axl Rose** and **Slash**, frontman and early lead guitar for the ever-awesome **Guns N' Roses**.

**Constellations:** The constellations Mia tells Rowen about are northern-hemisphere constellations. I wasn't sure they'd be visible on the hillside Mia and Rowen are sitting on, but my beta says yes. The specific constellations Mia calls attention to are **Orion**, who's probably more famous for the three stars that make up **Orion's Belt**. In Greek legend, Orion treaded on the scorpion, which stung and killed him in retaliation. As reward for being such a great warrior, they set the hunter in the stars with his dog. When Orion rises, the scorpion sets, ensuring that it will never sting him again. **Sagitta**'s legend is Mesopotamian—the god Marduk slays the monster Tiamat with that enchanted arrow. I thought that fit Rowen rather nicely.

**"Milk Ball":** Anyone who's seen my Ronin fanart on DeviantART would know that I can't let an opportunity to poke fun at that ubiquitous "Milk Ball" shirt go. I have got to get me one of those.

**Next chapter:** The Ronin start sleuthing. And we finally get to the subplot my team's been waiting for. Goodness knows I've been waiting to get to it!


	4. All Good Soldiers

**Author's Introduction:**

So the Ronin and Mia have decided that they're not going to sit idly by and let a beast continue to wreak havoc on the city. They're going to stop it—but first, they need to know exactly what they're dealing with. As Freddy Jones might say, "Let's split up, gang!"

* * *

**Cross My Heart, and Hope to Die**

_A Ronin Warriors fanfiction by Firestar9mm_

* * *

**Chapter Four: All Good Soldiers**

_All good soldiers crack like boulders  
The sun climbs up to a razor  
Violins, new boots, and numbers on a chain  
All good soldiers  
All good soldiers  
It's 6 AM, I can see my breath and the clay dirt is laughing at a weakling boy  
Today is the day that I'll write my friends  
It's something I've been trying to remember  
I had a dream of a wall that was twenty-one stories tall  
All good soldiers fall in line_

(Bad Religion, _All Good Soldiers_)

* * *

White Blaze got up carefully, trying not to wake Ryo, who was still sleeping soundly. The Warrior of Wildfire twitched his nose, murmured something, then stilled.

The tiger pushed his nose against his best friend's cheek affectionately. He'd let Ryo sleep for a little while longer.

The big cat stepped carefully among his sleeping pals, all curled up on the cabin floor. There was plenty of space for him to sidle up next to the sofa—the space beside it was empty, the blanket folded on top of the pillow. This did not alarm White Blaze overly; Sage was often restless in times of stress and had probably let himself out. He'd be back when he got hungry, the tiger decided wisely.

Speaking of hungry…

Mia was lying on her stomach, one arm tucked beneath her in an almost childlike gesture, the other dangling off the side of the sofa, knuckles brushing the hardwood floor where Sage had lain. One of her feet wasn't covered by the blanket. White Blaze licked her toes delicately. She stirred and kicked, but didn't wake up. White Blaze tried again, his broad tongue scratching against the sole of her slender foot. She kicked again, squirming, brows knitting over her closed eyes. "No. Monster, no. Don't eat me," she murmured, then sat up with a particularly well-aimed kick. White Blaze stepped back, brushing at his sensitive nose with a paw.

Immediately penitent, Mia opened her arms to him and he stepped closer to her, raising his head so she could smack her lips against his muzzle in three loud kisses. White Blaze liked that and flicked his tongue against her cheek.

"All better," Mia trilled softly, beaming with the magic smile, the one that melted the mighty Kento of Hardrock into his socks and caused even the strong, stoic Sage of Halo's heart rate to pick up. "Somebody must be hungry."

White Blaze's stripy tail began an excited dance, hoping to prove that he was somebody who was hungry. Sliding off the sofa, Mia frowned as her foot met the wood floor, noting the empty space where Sage had slept. "Doesn't that boy know the meaning of the word 'vacation'?" she murmured. Patting the tiger's head, she headed quietly and carefully towards the kitchenette, tiptoeing around Kento's broad chest and Rowen's outstretched arms. White Blaze followed happily.

* * *

The scent of fat browning in butter forced Kento's eyes open like a shot.

Sitting up slowly, he sniffed the air a few times, making sure that it wasn't a false alarm and there was a good reason to leave the warm cocoon of sheets he was wrapped in. But a flicker of stripes in the kitchenette confirmed his hopes, and he was up in seconds.

Mia was at the stove, having found a dented skillet and an old apron in one of the cabinets. The threadbare garment was tied into a bow at her back, forcing Ryo's borrowed "Milk Ball" shirt higher over her Lycra shorts, and she was singing softly to herself as something sizzled in the pan she held. "_Funny how all dreams come true, like a fool I'm into you, boy…_"

"What a beautiful sight," Kento sighed happily.

"You haven't even seen what I'm cooking yet," Mia laughed, turning over her shoulder to grin at him.

"Was talking about the chef, not the meal—but since you brought it up—" Kento hooked his chin over Mia's shoulder and his breath shuddered outward in unmistakable delight. "_Bacon_," he said. "_Marry_ me." Locking his arms around her from behind, he gave her a huge hug, picking her up a bit off the floor.

The skillet _clanked_ onto the heat as Mia squeaked out a laugh. "Stop it before you make me burn myself!"

Cye shuffled into the kitchenette, yawning, tripping a bit over his long, loose-fitting flannel pants. "Something smells good."

"It ain't me," Kento chuckled, releasing Mia and raising an arm as if to smell himself. "I wanna take a shower before breakfast is ready."

"Someone has to go wake Ryo and Rowen," Mia said, poking at the bacon.

"No way," Cye said immediately, leaning against the fridge. "The last time I tried to wake Rowen, he threw a shoe at me."

"Not just no," Kento agreed. "Hell no."

Mia turned to dimple at her last available option, flashing the tiger a would-you-do-it-for-a-Scooby-Snack smile. "Extra two pieces of bacon for you if you do it."

White Blaze padded obediently out of the kitchenette. Seconds later, Rowen yelled, "_Ay_! Aw_right_, aw_right_, ya ovagrown stuffed toy, I'm _awake_ awreddy." Ryo's full-throated chuckle could be heard in the background.

Back in the kitchenette, Kento pouted. "_I_ would have done it if I knew you were offering extra bacon!"

"Take your shower, Kento," Mia said affectionately. "Plenty for everyone."

Kento leaned in to smack a wet kiss against Mia's cheek. "You're a princess. Don't start without me."

White Blaze came back at Ryo's side, eagerly awaiting his promised extra bacon. Ryo stretched, his shoulders straining at his university t-shirt. "What's cooking?" he asked. Rowen followed, glaring at everyone like a beast in a lair. Mia made a mental note to give him the crunchy pieces of bacon that she knew were his favorite.

"Good morning, Rowen," Cye and Kento sang, beaming at their friend's angry expression.

Rowen's eyes narrowed to slits. "Oh yeah? What's so Rowen about it?"

Ryo chuckled as he stretched to get plates out of the cabinet above Mia's head.

* * *

Sage had slept fitfully, woken constantly from dreams in which red eyes stared from shadows and a heavy weight kept striking his shoulder, forcing his hand away from Mia's. He'd heard her and Rowen come back into the cabin sometime in the middle of the night and heard her gently scolding Strata that he shouldn't attempt to keep watch all night by himself. She'd had a point, and since he hadn't been able to calm himself, he had sat outside until dawn shaded up from the horizon, trying not to dwell on his uneasiness. He had thought he felt a little better—until he returned to the cabin and saw a sight through the kitchenette window that sent him into an entirely new paroxysm of confusion.

Mia was special to all the boys—each was close to her in his own way, and they were overprotective of her and generous with their attention. Some were more physically affectionate with her than others, like Rowen. Or Kento, as Sage was noticing right now through the kitchenette window. The Warrior of Hardrock had his arms around Mia's waist and was lifting her off the ground in a bear hug. Sage focused on her face, seeing but not hearing her laughter.

Sage frowned, trying to regain his earlier calm. Kento was a flirt, that was all. And Mia didn't look like it bothered her; she was smiling and laughing, no matter how much Sage was wishing she'd just smack Kento and make him let her go—

He blinked, shocked at the suggestion his mind had supplied.

It wasn't the first time he'd felt this—a vague, acidic flare of temper towards one of the others for flirting with Mia. He hadn't thought much of it the first few times it had happened; he'd chalked it up to how fiercely protective he was of the redhead. He had never said it in so many words, but ever since that night on the mountain, when she'd shown that she was willing to die for them, he'd felt responsible for her somehow—a sense of chivalrous duty to someone who'd nearly lost her own life protecting his.

But as time went by, he'd realized that predators weren't limited to timber wolves and armored warlords. Even run-of-the-mill schoolboys and foppish academics, who would see Mia and like her for the obvious, could prove to be a danger.

Sage bared his teeth in a silent snarl at the memory of that jerk she'd been seeing in the spring, that snobby, arrogant researcher. The others had done most of the work chasing him off, but Sage had been just as eager to send that particular suitor packing.

Still, he'd hardly considered the researcher a threat. He'd known from the word go that the man wasn't going to be a runner. Kyouya had suffered from a tendency to drink white wine spritzers and treated Mia like a glass bauble. Plus, he was just a researcher, a boring old archivist, nothing there to capture Mia's active imagination. If the guys hadn't stepped in to let him know he hadn't been welcome, Sage was sure that Mia would have gotten bored and done it herself in less than two months.

That wasn't the problem, Sage reflected. The problem was that Kyouya had been just one of a seemingly endless string of crashing bores who were threatening his friend, making complete pains of themselves and going to great lengths to tie her down or silt her up.

The less obvious problem was that he couldn't explain why it bothered him so much.

Kento was smacking his lips messily against Mia's cheek. She squinted, twisting away with a grin and swatting at him with a slender hand, and resentment crackled through Sage once more, sharper and more abrasive than before.

It was when he began to see the guys, his best friends, as potential threats to Mia that he became the most alarmed at his own ferocity, having to consciously remind himself that they all felt close to Mia, that she was special to all the guys, not just him.

It made him wonder just _how_ emotionally invested he was in the girl he'd elected to hold in his care. But the answer to that question lay over a line that Sage of Halo just wasn't sure he was ready to cross. Because there would be no going back.

A noise distracted him from his thoughts, and two heads poked out of the kitchenette window, one human, one feline. "Hey," Mia said cheerfully, leaning over White Blaze's twitching ears. "What're you doing hanging around out here? Breakfast is up."

White Blaze pushed his head further out, giving Sage a friendly don't-you-want-bacon look.

"Come on," Mia cajoled. "I saved you some of the crunchy pieces, but you'll have to share them with Rowen. Want some?"

Sage nodded. "Sure."

"Then come inside," Mia laughed. "This ain't no drive-thru!" Giggling, she ducked back into the kitchenette, followed by the tiger.

Unable to help himself, Sage laughed, shaking his head as he followed her into the cabin.

* * *

Mia had learned a long time ago that if she let the guys fight it out over the shower first, she'd be left in relative peace when it was finally her turn. So by the time they were all scrubbed (and sometimes bruised; Cye had forced Rowen out of the way with an Indian burn), she had breakfast waiting for them along with a stack of paper and some writing utensils from her duffel bag.

"What's with the paper and pens?" Ryo asked through a mouthful of toast. White Blaze crunched happily on bacon at Wildfire's feet.

"They're for an experiment," Mia explained excitedly. "I thought maybe it would be useful if me, Sage, Cye and Kento all drew what we think we saw and try to see what they have in common."

"But Ryo an' I didn't see it," Rowen protested. "How're we s'posda help?"

Mia dimpled at him, crossing one leg behind the other girlishly. "There's a whole sink full of dishes that need some help."

Ryo clapped a hand over his head. "_Weak_," he declared.

"_Supah_ weak," Rowen agreed, but he was getting up from the table to help regardless, rolling up the sleeves of the white long-sleeved shirt he was wearing under his dark t-shirt. "How come _we_ gotta do the dishes?"

"Next time you nearly get electrocuted, I'll do the dishes," Cye promised, reaching for a ballpoint pen.

Sage had a doubtful expression on his face. "Can I do the dishes?"

"No," Mia said, handing him a charcoal pencil. Ryo grumpily took the dishrag and started drying the dishes that Rowen handed to him. Kento had immediately commandeered a box of crayons that Mia had placed out, and he and Cye were fighting over the red crayon.

Rather than sulking and ignoring the others, Sage speared Mia with a glance and said, "Okay, I'll do it, but you have to do it too."

Mia blinked, mildly surprised, and everyone else stopped what they were doing to glance at the warrior of Halo. "Of course I will," Mia said brightly, sitting down at her place and reaching for paper. "If Kento will share the crayons."

"Get your own!" the warrior of Hardrock declared, the tip of his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth as he colored.

In the end, the exercise actually proved useful. By the time Ryo and Rowen finished the dishes and sat down with the others, Mia had collected the drawings and placed them all side-by-side, then took a clean pad and a pen to take notes. Every single drawing shared a few details—red eyes, a big tail, pointy teeth. Both Kento and Sage's drawing had three eyes. Mia's had two tails and sharp fangs. Cye's had two tails—and that was about the only thing Mia could recognize. "Cye," she finally asked after several seconds of scrutinizing his paper, "what _is_ this?"

She held up Torrent's drawing. Most of it was colored with a blue ballpoint. In one corner there was a grey pencil blob with a forked tail and two red crayon dots for eyes.

"I didn't get a good look," Cye said, fidgeting. "I was underwater, and it was moving really fast." After a pause and a few raised brows, he burst out, "I can't draw, okay?"

Laughter broke out around the table. Kento slung a friendly arm around Cye. "Cheer up, buddy. I can't do lots of things."

Despite his initial reluctance to participate in the experiment, Sage's drawing was elegantly abstract, heavy on shading and thick sketchy lines, darkest where they framed the sharp teeth and red eyes, which blazed in bright marker amid the dark charcoal pencil she'd given him. Mia felt a little dizzy at how the drawing reminded her of what had happened in the library.

By contrast, Kento's drawing was cartoonish—but _gruesome_ cartoonish. The demon had three red eyes, a mouth full of sharp teeth and a big bushy tail. "Why can't you take anything seriously, Kento?" Ryo said. "You drew it drooling."

"It _was_ drooling," Kento insisted. "It was chewing and spitting all over the light pole I was climbing. It would have spit on _me_ if the pegs I was standing on hadn't come loose."

"That was odd," Mia agreed. "I saw you fall, but those pegs should have been able to hold you, even in your subarmor."

Kento pointed at Cye, who was about to speak. "If you make even one fat joke, your family will never find your remains."

Cye's mouth snapped shut. After fuming for a few seconds, he tried again. "What I was _going_ to say was that the pegs were no good. I saw a couple of them on the ground after we were thrown clear of the water. Their ends were all lumpy and misshapen, sort of thinned out near the edges."

"Maybe they were damaged then," Kento said. "Could explain why it _smelled_ so bad."

"You didn't tell us that it smelled bad," Sage said.

"Well, it did." Kento wrinkled his nose. "Like rotten eggs and vinegar." Blinking, he turned to Mia. "Do you think the pegs got eroded by weather? Like acid rain or something?"

Sage's hand immediately went to his neck, where a gauze pad was affixed over his burn. Mia and Cye were thinking along the same lines too.

"Not acid rain," Mia said. "Acid _saliva_."

"It can't really be acid," Sage pointed out. "If it were, it would have eaten right through our bones. It didn't."

"Good point. But whatever it is, it's caustic," Mia said, picking at the gauze on her own hand. "Sulfur is an element found in _all_ living cells. What's to say that it couldn't be creating a caustic effluvia like a snake creates venom?"

"What's bothering me is that all of this is actually starting to make sense," Cye grumbled, pillowing his head on his arms at the table.

Ryo and Rowen had found a way to contribute to the conversation—Rowen had the tabloid, Ryo the evening edition of yesterday's newspaper, trying to find any details about burns or a caustic substance. "Dammit," Rowen said. "All of th' victims in this article were too torn up t' tell if they had any burns or anything."

Ryo had gotten sidetracked by a story on a middle page. "You're in the paper, Mia," he said, turning the paper on an angle so Mia could see the print.

NOVELIST DISCOVERS BODY IN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

The article relating to Hiro's death consisted of one short column and hadn't even made it above the fold. According to the story, Hiro's death, while tragic, was not unusual and had been ruled as accidental.

"I didn't scream and faint," Mia huffed. "Where did they get that idea?"

The guys exchanged relieved smiles; they had been worried the article might upset her, but Mia, ever the practical princess, was more aggravated by the exaggeration of her reactions.

"Well, I _screamed_, of course I screamed," she was saying. "But I absolutely did not faint. It was probably that _odious_ detective, Whatshisname."

"Kozu," Sage supplied, brow creasing at the memory of his own run-in with the tightly wound detective.

Ryo took the paper back and read aloud. "_Detectives led the sobbing Ms. Koji downtown to take her statement_—"

"I didn't cry!" Mia protested indignantly. "Well, I _did_, but not in the police station! I was all done crying before they even showed up." She pouted, like a little girl trying to prove to her brothers that she was just as tough as they were.

"At least they got the 'Ms' part right," Ryo said cheerfully.

Mia's cheeks were flushed pink with rage. "It's got to have been that beastly detective. He was giving me such a hard time, like he was mad because I didn't _push_ Hiro or something."

Rowen had his hands on Mia's shoulders, pushing her gently back down into her chair and massaging the tense muscles, a favorite gesture of his affection. "Easy, tigah," he chuckled. "S'just a stupid news column. Nobody even reads th' middle pages anyhow." He brushed his thumbs against the sides of her slender neck, and Sage looked away, focusing on dispelling that toxic flare of temper again.

"What else does it say?" he asked Ryo, attempting to distract himself.

Ryo took up the paper again. "_Hiro Imamura's body has been released to his wife, Eiko. Services will be held…_huh. Today."

Mia's shoulders relaxed beneath Rowen's hands. "Oh," she said softly. "When?"

"Early this afternoon." Ryo scanned the page for the time.

Mia sighed, glancing up at the clock on the cabin wall. "If I hurry, I can probably make it."

The boys exchanged glances. "Mia," Cye said gently. "You don't _have_ to."

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Kento asked.

Mia pressed her lips together. "I definitely _don't_ want to do it. But I should. It's the right thing to do."

"We'll wait for you, then," Ryo said. "We won't investigate without you."

But Mia shook her head. "No, no. We can't afford to waste time. You go on ahead, and I'll catch you up."

"But how are we going to know where to look without you?" Ryo asked. "You know more about this stuff than any of us."

Picking up the tabloid, Mia flipped through a few pages. "We've practically got a map right here. You could scout the locations of the attacks, see if you find anything unusual?"

Cye warmed up to the idea. He took a clean piece of paper and a felt-tip pen. "We'll write down anything that seems weird."

"I got an even better idea." Kento jumped up from the table with happy inspiration. Ducking into the next room, he returned with his duffel bag. Rummaging around inside it, he pulled out a camera. "I brought this to take a few group pictures, but I guess it'll come in handy today!"

"Great!" Mia said. "You guys look for clues, and I'll meet you later."

"Why don't we all just meet up here later?" Ryo said. "As soon as you're ready, Mia, come back here. We'll call you here when we're coming back."

"What if the thing comes after you again?" Sage asked. "You'll be all alone."

"I'll be fine," Mia soothed. "It's just a funeral service. I hardly think a monster will crash the party."

Rowen had an idea. "We'll take th' satchel with us," he decided. "If that's what this thing really wants, it'll come afta us, not her."

Mia blinked. "I suppose that would be all right," she said. "Just be _careful_ with it, please. Bring it back to me."

"Promise," Rowen said.

"Are you sure you're going to be all right?" Ryo asked.

Mia nodded, pleased with the plan. "Yes. This is a good plan." Glancing around the kitchenette, she decided everything was in order, then looked down at her rumpled sleepwear. Usually she was the one ready before everyone else; it seemed strange to be so out of sorts. "Thanks for cleaning up, guys. I'm going to shower—yell in to me when you're leaving, okay? And be—"

"Careful," all the boys laughed. "We got it."

As soon as she'd padded out of the kitchen, the boys exchanged glances again. "One of us should really go with her."

"I wanna see this thing," Rowen protested, keeping a tight hold on the satchel. "I ain't even seen it yet."

"Be careful what you wish for," Cye muttered darkly, twitching at the memory of the shock that had run through his body when the power line had hit the water.

"You okay, Cye?" Ryo asked. "Do you want to go along with her?"

"I'm not scared," Torrent said, a little hotly.

"I didn't say that!" Ryo soothed.

Kento noticed Sage's fingers drumming a thoughtful tattoo on the table. "How about if your name is Sage, you have to go with Mia?" he asked, smiling at his friend.

Sage narrowed his eyes at Kento, then answered him and the others, who had turned their gazes to him. "I was going to volunteer anyway, smartass." A smirk slashed Halo's handsome face. "I'm the only one who packed a suit jacket."

"You _would_, you freak," Kento teased, but his eyes were twinkling with amusement.

* * *

Mia closed her burning eyes, leaning into the shower spray. She did not want to attend the funeral service. Still, she knew that paying her respects was the right thing to do, and all good soldiers would not abandon their posts. Doing the right thing, being strong in times of need—Mia Koji followed her own warrior's code.

Still, she'd much rather have been out with the guys hunting for clues than once again donning a nice outfit and acting formal. Still…all good soldiers.

Mia was glad that Ryo's father had decided to have modern plumbing installed in the cabin all those years ago; she'd had a few scary fantasies of them having to tote well water up to the house in order to shower. But the bathroom was done beautifully, complete with a spa showerhead and a deep bathtub.

Bracing her hands against the wall, she let the water hammer at the tense muscles of her neck. She was not looking forward to the grief she was about to intrude upon.

Twisting the taps, she stepped out of the shower and dried off half-heartedly. All sounded quiet outside; the boys hadn't yelled in to her that they were leaving like she'd asked, but they'd probably just forgotten. Slipping into a pair of panties and a bra, she stepped into the hallway, idly toweling off her hair.

"Mia?" Footsteps approached her as soon as the sound of the door opening was heard. "Do you want me to dri—" Sage stepped into the hallway, then stopped short when he took in her state of undress.

Mia froze, too startled to sort out why he was there when the others had said they were leaving. When Sage's wide eyes flickered reflexively down and then forced back to her face, she whipped the damp towel from her hair to cover herself, finally stung into movement.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, face hot with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry," he said, his own face flushed. He was wearing a grey collared shirt under a dark suit jacket and and trousers. His shoes were shined, and a tie lay unknotted around his neck, as if hearing her emerge from the shower had interrupted him in the middle of adjusting it. "I didn't mean—what I'm saying is—"

"What are you doing here?" she repeated, more forcefully this time. "Why are you dressed like that?"

Sage composed himself. "I'm accompanying you to the services."

Mia's clutched the towel close, eyes widening in disbelief. "Are you serious? You think I can't even go to a funeral by myself, is that it?"

"No, I'm just the only one who packed a suit jacket," he said, just as he'd told Kento.

She didn't laugh. Mouth snapping shut, she turned on her heel and stalked back into the bathroom, slamming the door.

Sage sighed, rubbing at his temple. "I'm sorry," he called in to her. "If it makes you feel better, it wasn't my idea. We agreed you shouldn't go alone."

"No one bothered to ask _my_ opinion," Mia retorted frostily from the other side of the bathroom door. "This is difficult enough for me as it is."

"I'm coming with you whether you like it or not," Sage said, but not unkindly.

There was silence for a few minutes, and then Mia spoke again. "Don't just sit there. If you're going to be here, you might as well make yourself useful. My dress and jacket are hanging up in the bedroom. Go get them for me, would you?"

As he was heading to obey, he heard her add as an afterthought, "Please?"

The dress was hanging on the back of the bedroom door, the jacket draped over the garment. Sage took both of them and tapped his knuckles lightly against the bathroom door.

She opened the door a crack, one ocean eye fixed on him, trying to maintain its frustration. "Thank you," she said softly. "I'll be ready soon."

"Take your time," he answered, maneuvering the hanger in through the limited space between door and doorjamb. "There's no rush. If we miss it, it's not the end of the world."

She seemed to like that and smiled briefly before closing the door, but halfway through the action, she changed her mind and opened it again. "Wait. Come here."

Puzzled, Sage obeyed, stepping back to the open door. Her earlier embarrassment forgotten, Mia tucked the towel around herself and reached for him, a tendril of wet hair dripping onto an indigo bra strap. Using a fingertip to tilt his chin up, she knotted his tie expertly, smoothing it down and nodding at her handiwork.

Sage had to smile. "Thank you."

She smiled for real this time, nodding once more before shutting the door again.

When he heard the faint hum of a blow dryer, he settled down in the next room to wait, fidgeting with his cuff links and trying to banish the image of her, half-dressed, skin slick with water, from his mind.

* * *

"We should have asked Mia if we could borrow her car," Cye grumbled, handing off the tabloid to Rowen. "Can you navigate, please? I'm getting nauseous."

"Dude, we have got to get you some Dramamine or something," Kento said at the wheel of the CJ, craning his neck to see the directions Rowen was pointing out to him.

"Or you could stop going over and through every obstacle on the road," Ryo suggested beside Cye, rubbing his head. After the last speed bump Kento had gunned the car over, he'd smacked his head on the roll bar.

"Chill out," Kento chuckled, maneuvering the CJ to the curb. "We're here."

"We're _where_?" Ryo asked, climbing over the passenger seat and out of the car.

"Ask the navigator," Kento said, slamming the driver's side door after everyone was out of the car.

All eyes turned to Rowen, who explained calmly as he rolled up the tabloid and stuck it in his back pocket. "Cye gave me th' idea, actually."

"Me?" Cye asked, happy to be out of the car and stretching his legs.

"Yeah, you." Rowen gave his friend a playful shove as they started walking down the block. "Remember that dog ya tripped ova when we were playin' baseball? Th' one that looked like it got inta a fight wit' a dinosaur an' lost?"

Ryo jogged to catch up with the others. "Hey, yeah! Maybe there's more evidence of a struggle or of another animal around the area. Good thinking, Rowen."

Strata beamed, never one to turn down praise.

The green meadow looked innocent enough in front of them, but Cye held the collar of his sleeveless sweatshirt in front of his nose anyway, remembering the stench of dead flesh.

Ryo took charge. "Okay, guys. Let's section the place off. Yell if you've got anything suspicious."

"How will we know if it's suspicious?" Kento asked, raising his hand as though they were in a grammar-school class.

Cye set his jaw. "You'll know."

* * *

Mia was having trouble focusing on the service. Every time her mind wandered, disjointed memories would flash back to her of the day of her grandfather's funeral—it seemed like so long ago. Only bits and pieces came back to her—the way the shoes she'd worn had pinched her feet; the scent of the air promising rain, the buttery incongruence of the afternoon light. She remembered delivering the eulogy to a sea of strangers, voice trembling as she extolled the virtues of the man who'd taught them all so much, the man who'd given her the knowledge she needed to help five warriors save the world. Naturally, she hadn't mentioned that part, but she hadn't needed to—those same warriors were listening, paying their respects to him as well as supporting her on that dark day.

But mostly she remembered touches—the press of Rowen's stiff dress shoe against her foot right before she'd gotten up to speak; the warm comfort of Kento's hand on her back every time they rose from their places. And when the service had finally ended and her knees had begun to shake with the reality of the situation, her feet failing her, she remembered the strength of the arms that had been waiting to catch her, the arms of the one who'd kept his watchful eye on her the entire time.

His eye was on the crowd now, and she could tell he was not listening to the service, either. They had taken a place in the back, beyond everyone else at the gravesite. The last thing Mia had wanted was to attract attention. "Stop doing that," she murmured, touching an elbow to his side.

"Doing what?" Sage asked, not taking his eyes off the group of mourners.

"Scanning the crowd for potential threats."

Now he did turn to her, arching a brow, looking mildly impressed but trying to disguise it with confusion.

"Don't give me that look. I know you," she murmured. "Nothing's going to happen to us here. Be still."

His eyes flashed with disfavor at the scolding, but she noticed he at least attempted not to look as much like a fox in a warren. She pressed her arm against his comfortingly. She knew she didn't understand about soldiering, and that he couldn't help himself. He seemed to welcome the touch, although he did not look at her.

To distract herself from her own discomfort, Mia tried to follow Sage's lead, looking more closely at the mourners. She didn't recognize any of them; probably mostly colleagues from the university. Most of them looked sufficiently pained by Hiro's passing; no one looked overtly suspicious to her. Finally, she turned her gaze to the front of the crowd, where the only family Hiro had—his wife—now had pride of place.

Mia focused on the grieving widow. Eiko Imamura looked about sixteen, but it was sure to have been due to her lack of makeup and uncertain posture. Any lipstick she might have put on before the service had long since been worn away by the constant rolling of her bottom lip out and under, or the nervous flickering of her tongue out over it after a press of teeth. Wavy blonde hair feel around her shoulders with a roof of bangs that ended just over big bloodshot eyes. She twisted a handkerchief between thin pale hands the entire time. When the attendants began handing out cut flowers for the mourners to place at the grave, Eiko began to sob in earnest, the big, hiccupping, chest-shaking sobs that hurt with every new breath. Mia felt her own memories closing in on her, her own breath quickening.

Sage leaned in to murmur in her ear. "I could use some air. Do you want to take a walk?"

Nodding fiercely, she let him take her arm and steer her away from the gravesite. Let him rescue her, just as he'd done that day at her grandfather's grave, just as he'd done on the mountaintop. Just as he'd been doing since they'd met.

Mia was constantly confused by how the world looked its prettiest on days when people buried their dead. The sunlight was always pale and sparkling, the horizon a soft and unclear line at the edge of the planet. Her heels sank into the dirt; the gravediggers would have had no trouble hollowing a place for Hiro out of the ground. Mia closed her eyes, trying to will away the thought of the summer earth being so eager to swallow the bones of family.

A strong arm wrapped around her waist, hand tucking under her elbow, warmer than the sunlight on her exposed skin. Mia leaned into his solidity, her heart aching for his other arm to close the circle, her mind knowing that it was impossible—the steely Halo would never compromise his sword arm.

"I'm so selfish," she sniffled, brushing an errant tear from her cheek.

Sage blinked in surprise. "How could you say that? You didn't have to come here today."

Mia shook her head. "They're burying Hiro—he was someone's son. Someone's husband, someone's friend, and all I can think of is my own problems. My own…" She trailed off, gaze dropping. Sage stroked his thumb against her arm, an almost imperceptible reminder of his presence at her side.

"I still miss him so much." Mia's whisper sounded young and frightened, as if even after all these years she was shocked at the depth of her own pain. Idly, she gazed out over the graves, which blurred wetly as her eyes betrayed her.

"Mia," Sage said, a note of impossible tenderness in his voice as he reached for her. "Don't. Please."

As he spoke, he stroked his thumb across her cheek, and she realized she was crying silently. Embarrassed, she looked away, letting the tears blur the pale blue sky where it met the grass.

Like an answered prayer, the arms that had never failed her circled her waist. He was rock steady, no longer paying attention to the distant service, the unknown crowd, strong embrace promising safety as he tucked his chin over her head. Closing her eyes tightly, Mia pressed her face into the place where his neck met his shoulder, breathing in the scent of cologne and feeling her heartbeat slow to the tempo of his.

"Don't let go," she whispered. "Don't let me go."

He didn't whisper; his words were calm with conviction. "Never."

"Promise?" She lifted her head; she wanted to see his face when he made this vow.

The smile never reached his lips, but she saw it in his eyes and heard it in his voice as he assured her, "I promise."

His fingertips were gentle against her mouth, stopping her from finishing the sentence. Night shaded up in his eyes, and her heart picked up once more against her will. Softly, slowly, his fingers moved trailed from her hair to stroke down her jaw and rest beneath her chin, applying the slightest pressure to bear. Helplessly, she allowed him to tilt her face up as he bent down.

Not then or ever would Mia be positive the kiss even happened; her eyes fluttered closed at the feel of his mouth on hers and she no longer felt two separate heartbeats but one that shook her down to her fingertips.

He released her slowly, and when she pulled back she saw that he'd closed his own eyes. A rush of blood warmed her face and it took two tries to make her trembling lips form words. "Do we talk about this now, or later?"

Sage looked like he wanted to talk about it right that very second, but a glance back to the gravesite helped him decide. "Later. The service is over."

As they returned to the gravesite, Mia couldn't help but notice that he made sure to walk on her right side, leaving his sword arm free once more, and the ache of a broken circle tightened her chest.

* * *

It was Ryo who found it, crouched on one knee and peering at the ground like Sherlock Holmes. "Got something."

It said a lot for the severity of the week's events that the other boys rushed over to crowd around their friend. "Looks like a stone," Rowen said.

"It isn't," Kento said, with the easy conviction of someone who felt the constant power running through seemingly still rock.

"Kento's right," Cye said. "It looks like…bone."

"It is," Ryo said, carefully trying to clear some of the dirt away from the object with his fingers. It caught the light eerily, sticking sharply out of the earth.

"That doesn't mean anything," Cye said carefully, trying to play devil's advocate. "This is a park. Animals live here. They bury things, I'm sure. It could even be what's left of a kill, or of someone's pet."

"Do you think the beast did this?" Kento wondered aloud.

"If that were true, why hide it?" Ryo asked. "All the other bodies were torn apart. Exposed."

"Sage said it looked like a dog," Kento responded. "Maybe it…buried a bone."

"Nah, Ryo's right," Rowen said. "It neva buried anythin' before. Why start now?"

"We don't know when this happened," Cye interjected, stroking his chin in thought. "There's no blood, no stench, no _flesh_. This kill is old."

Ryo furrowed his brow. "That gives credence to Mia's theory that a person is behind this. Only a person would hide a body so well that its skin would rot away before it was found. Animals don't do that." The Warrior of Wildfire leaned back on his haunches and rubbed at his cheek, smearing dirt across his face.

"Only one way to be sure," Cye decided. "We'll have to dig it up and take a closer look."

"Hang on a second," Kento said, an idea striking him. "I brought my brothers and sister to the beach a couple of weeks ago. They left some of their toys in the CJ. I'll be right back." He turned and jogged back towards where they'd parked the truck.

While they were waiting, Cye busied himself with taking pictures of the exposed bone with Kento's camera, which he'd left behind. Rowen helped by clearing the dirt away from the area so it could be seen more clearly, while Ryo stood by with a grim expression on his face.

"What kind of bone do you suppose it is?" Cye asked, squinting through the viewfinder to get a close-up of the bone. "A leg, maybe?"

"Nah. Lookit that," Rowen said, kneeling by the bone and indicating a little knob with his finger. "See that? That's a vertebrae. Spine bump."

"_Spine_?" Ryo asked hollowly. "You're saying that it's a _spinal column_ buried there?"

"That's silly, Rowen," Cye said placidly, snapping another picture. "What would have a spine that sma—" Torrent dropped the camera with a sharp intake of breath, his mind finishing his own sentence in a way that disturbed him.

The three boys exchanged grim glances. It was Rowen who vocalized the upsetting thought. "You guys don't think it's, like, a kid, right?"

Kento jogged back up, his arms full of brightly colored beach toys. "They're small, but they'll do the job," he said, oblivious to the pall of gloom that had settled over his friends as he passed out gaily colored plastic shovels to his friends. "I figure Mia won't be satisfied with pictures. She'll flip if we bring her back a real clue!"

To a passing stranger, the sight would have been ridiculous—four grown men digging in the dirt with beach toys. But the four Ronin treated their task as seriously as heart surgery; Kento's face was set in concentration as he carefully scraped dirt away from the bone and scooped it into a plastic bucket that belonged to Chun Fa—something pink decorated with white and yellow flowers. Rowen's breath was quick with anticipation wondering just what sort of skeleton they were uncovering.

After a long period of careful work, the boys carefully lifted the bones onto the beach blanket the toys had been wrapped in when Kento had kept them in the car. Cye's breath whooshed out in relief. "That's not a child. There's a tail."

It was true—a long, thin chain of bones extended from curled haunches, as if the animal had died crouched low, hunched up in pain. "Not hands, either, not enough fingers. These are paws," Ryo mused, reaching to touch a skeletal paw. "Probably a dog or a cat."

"Dog," Rowen declared. "Too big f'r a cat."

"We still don't know if this is related to the beast," Kento said, dropping his plastic shovel and sitting down heavily. "Maybe someone's dog just died and they buried it here in the park. How do we know?"

Ryo's brow furrowed as he gazed over the bones. "I can answer that question with a question," he said. "Where's its _head_?"

Sure enough, the exposed bone had been a spinal column as Rowen had guessed. Paws and tail were all attached, but the skeleton only looked sad and confusing without a head.

"I think it's safe to say the beast is involved," Cye said.

* * *

Mia hesitated as they advanced towards the gravesite once more, seemingly nettled by the idea of just walking up to Eiko Imamura and speaking to her. Sage saved the day with ease, stooping gracefully to pluck two cut flowers from a discarded paper cone that had been left behind on one of the folding chairs. Handing one to Mia, he stepped around her and placed the one he held on the large floral arrangement already displayed. Smoothly, he straightened and leaned closer to examine the memorial standing on an easel beside the grave—a collage of pictures, awards and newspaper clippings devoted to Hiro. He did not look at her, but Mia knew he was listening, ready to step in if she needed him.

Emboldened by how easy he made it look, Mia followed his lead, catching Eiko's attention as she placed her flower on the arrangement. Turning towards the other woman, she inclined her head respectfully. "I am so sorry for your loss."

Eiko's bloodshot eyes squeezed to slits, as if the tears were overpowering her. "Thank you," she said quickly, and it was clear she didn't know who Mia was. She was just repeating what she'd been saying all day, like a mourning parrot—_thank you_, _thank you_.

Mia knew what that was like. Feeling pity for the blonde, she decided to give Eiko a little help. "The academic world will be poorer without your husband's book. I was supposed to meet with him to discuss it the other night and he let me sneak a peek at some of his notes beforehand. He was truly an authority in his field, just as my grandfather predicted."

A glimmer of recognition rose in Eiko's eyes. She clutched a crumpled tissue in her fist, pressing her knuckles against her mouth. "I know you. I've seen your books on our coffee table. Koji—it's Koji, isn't it?"

Mia nodded. "Yes. Mia Koji. Hiro worked alongside my grandfather; Grandpa thought very highly of him."

Eiko stared at Mia with tortured eyes. "You said his name."

Mia blinked. "Beg your pardon?"

"Everyone else, they let their voices drop when they say his name. They'll say, 'Eiko, we're so sorry about—_Hiro_'." The blonde whispered the name as so many people had done to her, then resumed speaking in a normal voice. "Thank you for not doing that."

Mia nodded. "Again, you have my sincerest condolences."

"It's you who found him, wasn't it?" Eiko's eyes shimmered. "Was it awful?"

Mia could feel Sage's steely gaze on her; he was still nearby, waiting to see if she needed him. It seemed to strengthen her; she drew in a deep breath. But there was no nice way to talk to a woman about finding the dead body of her husband. "I…I don't think he suffered."

Eiko's eyes squeezed shut again; she pulled her fancy black coat tighter around her as if the cold were too much to bear.

"Do you have family in the area?" Mia asked, wishing she had a handkerchief to offer the blonde. "Someone you can stay with?"

Tears slid down Eiko's cheeks as she nodded. "M-my sister. I can't stay alone in the house without Hiro. Even our…even our dog disappeared a few weeks ago. It's so quiet without…"

Mia nodded. "You shouldn't be alone now." She touched the blonde's arm. "Mrs. Imamura, is there someone I can speak with about your husband's work? I'd like to look into possibly publishing his book posthumously." Admittedly, the idea had never occurred to Mia, but she was surprised at how smoothly the lie rolled off her tongue. Her joy at her own cleverness was short-lived, however—Eiko's eyes lit up.

"That would be so wonderful," the blonde breathed, clutching her mangled tissue in both hands. "Hiro loved his work so much, and he had so much to share. It would be so nice to see it in print."

Mia felt a nervous urge to twist a lock of hair around her finger; she felt guilty for getting Eiko's hopes up. "If we can move forward with anything, Mrs. Imamura, you'll be the first person I notify. Would one of his colleagues perhaps be able to discuss it with me?"

Eiko glanced around the gravesite. "You could always talk to his research assistant, Kaori. She's a graduate student, but she was involved in every aspect of Hiro's work. I know she's taking this very hard as well—she was just as passionate about the work, but she isn't experienced enough to take it on in Hiro's stead, so I'm sure she'd be thrilled to have your help sorting it out. She's right over there."

Mia followed Eiko's pointing finger to the only person still seated in the final row of folding chairs, a young woman with a heavy tail of black hair and dark eyes fixed on a middle distance.

"Poor thing," Eiko murmured. "I don't know what she'll do without the work to focus on."

"She was a hard worker?" Mia asked.

Eiko nodded. "Hiro had a feeling that she sometimes escaped into the research. Her fiance…he was an acquired taste." Eiko's eyes warmed over for a second. "Hiro would tell me he was the luckiest man in the world to have me to come home to." She laughed, a tear sliding down her cheek. "He called me his very own fairy tale."

Mia's eyes softened. "Mrs. Imamura, thank you for your help. Please accept my sincere condolences on your loss. Hiro will be missed."

Eiko tried bravely to smile through her tears. "Thank you, Ms. Koji. It was sweet of you to try to help Hiro."

"I will help him," Mia said with such conviction that Sage looked up, ruining the pretense that he wasn't paying attention to the conversation. "I promise, Mrs. Imamura."

Eiko nodded quickly, then bolted to the waiting limousine, where another blonde, presumably her sister, bundled her into the car.

Sage frowned as Mia returned to his side. "Do you think you can really publish his work posthumously?"

"I'm certainly going to talk to my editor about it," she said. "I'm not about to let all Hiro's hard work go to waste." Noting his disapproving expression, she asked, "What?"

Sage shook his head. "You're taking so much on. I'm concerned for you, Mia. This is not your responsibility."

Mia felt uncomfortable. "You know I can't sit idly by and watch when I know that I can help."

Sage arched a brow. "And _you_ know that _I_ can't sit idly by when you are knowingly putting yourself in danger."

Suddenly exasperated at the familiar argument, Mia let her arms fall to her sides. "Is that why you're standing with your arms folded like that? It looks like you're bodyguarding me."

"I _am_ bodyguarding you," Sage said flatly.

Mia frowned. "No, you're not. You're helping me. It's not the same thing."

Sage snorted, lifting his well-made nose. "All I've done is follow you around and be useless. I'll stand however I want."

Ocean-colored eyes rolled in exasperation at him. "If you're going to be difficult, go back and wait in the car. I'll do this myself."

Naturally, Sage vetoed that idea. "I'm not your dog! I am not staying in the car with the window rolled down, and I'm not leaving you alone."

Grabbing his arm boldly, Mia yanked him closer to her. "Then walk beside me and pretend to be my friend. Come on, let's go talk to that girl."

" 'Pretend'?" Sage looked just the slightest bit hurt.

Too late, Mia realized her poor choice of words. She had only wanted him not to look as though he were her probation officer, but there was no time to apologize for the misstep.

"Heads up," Mia said, stalling any further argument. "She's over there. _Please_ try not to look so menacing?"

Sage pouted, but tossed his head to be sure his blond bangs covered one eye—a habit he'd had since his childhood—and followed her.

The dark-haired girl now stood at the foot of the grave, clutching a yellow rose in her hands and staring at the disturbed earth intently, as though she were looking for something specific. Her profile was classically perfect as she carefully placed her rose on the floral arrangement.

Stepping forward, Mia addressed the girl by name. "Kaori? It's Kaori, right?"

Kaori wasn't just pretty, she was startlingly beautiful. Wide dark eyes dominated her face, and there was a faraway look in them, as if her thoughts were constantly elsewhere. "I'm Kaori. I'm sorry, I don't remember your name."

"You wouldn't. We've never met," Mia said. "My name is Mia Koji. This is Sage Date," she added, indicating her companion, who nodded respectfully.

Kaori arched a dark brow, adjusting the cuffs of her black suit jacket. "Koji? Hiro worked alongside a Dr. Koji. It was his dream to one day be as respected in his field; Dr. Koji was truly an inspiration to both of us. Are you a relative of his?"

"Yes," Mia said, her voice warm with proud memories of the man so many people admired. "I'm his granddaughter. I was his research assistant, just like you are Hiro's."

Kaori regarded Mia evenly with those faraway eyes, as if deciding the redhead weren't a complete waste of time. "_Was_ his research assistant. I believe that is something else we have in common, Ms. Koji. I am sorry about your grandfather's passing; Hiro was as well."

Mia nodded. "That's very kind of you. And I am truly sorry about Hiro. He will be missed. He was a great scholar, and a great man."

Kaori nodded. "Did you both attend Shinsai?" she asked. "Do you two know each other from school?"

Not expecting the question, Mia floundered in her own thoughts for a second, but Sage picked up the slack effortlessly. "Actually, we met through a mutual friend." His eyes twinkled mischievously at Mia, and she blinked the question back at him.

Well…it _was_ true, technically. She and Ryo had found Sage in the caves at the Pinnacles. But she hadn't expected him to be cute about it.

"I was going to help Hiro with his book," Mia explained to Kaori, trying to get her footing back. "He had wanted to cite my grandfather as a source, and asked me if I could assist in Grandpa's stead."

This seemed to pique Kaori's interest more than anything else had. "Oh, do you still study ancient legends?"

"I might know my way around a legend or two," Mia said, smiling.

Sage cut in smoothly. "She's too modest. She knows more about ancient legends and texts than the monks who wrote them down. In fact—" That mischievous glitter turned almost wicked in his eyes. "—We even visited the Throne of the Gods once. On that…ski trip on Mount Dojo. Remember, sweetheart?"

Mia's dizzy brain could barely form a reply in the face of an event as ridiculous as Sage Date calling someone "sweetheart", but she managed. "You're right, Sage, but it was so _cold_! I nearly _froze_ to death up there!"

Checkmate—an expression of unbearable hurt flashed across Sage's face, there and gone in a second like heat lightning. Chastised, he backed down.

Kaori was oblivious to the power play that was going on beneath their conversation. She sighed. "That must have been so nice. Hiro was always promising me he'd take me to see all the wonderful places he'd been, but…" The girl's voice thickened with pain. "No time, no time for that now." Reaching into her blouse, she drew out a pendant on a long chain. "The first year I worked for him, he gave me this. Isn't it pretty?"

It was. The small silver disc was engraved with a symbol in an odd flowing script, a long stroke with three prongs. "It's for good luck," Kaori said. "In one of the ancient languages Hiro studied. At least, that's what he told me."

"Kaori, did Hiro act…strangely…over the last week?" Mia asked. "Was he especially nervous or upset?"

Kaori looked concerned. "No. We were just fine. I didn't…I didn't see much of him that week because I had a lot of work to do..." Her voice was squeezed tight with tears. "But he was happy, the same way he always is." She speared Mia with those dark, sad eyes. "What are you saying? Was something wrong with Hiro?"

Sage's hand pressed against Mia's back again. This time, it was less to comfort and more as a silent warning to back down, but Mia ignored it. "I'm not sure, Kaori. That's what I'm trying to find out."

"Hiro was my _mentor_," Kaori whispered. "He was my _friend_. Don't you think I would have noticed if something was wrong? Trust me, Ms. Koji. There was nothing wrong with Hiro."

"That pendant is lovely," Mia said, sensing she'd hit a sore spot and changing tack. "You should hang on to that. Seems like you could use a little luck."

"I never take it off." Kaori's thin hand closed around the medallion and her eyes closed in pain. "I'm so sorry, Ms. Koji, but I've got to go. My fiancé is waiting for me, and he hates to be kept waiting. I can't talk to you anymore."

Mia nodded. "All right. Thank you, Kaori."

Kaori's wet eyes jumped to Sage. "Take care. Take care of each other."

Sage shot a glance at Mia. "I would if she'd let me."

The statement only seemed to upset Kaori more; she bit her lip on a sob and hurried off, leaving Sage and Mia glaring at each other.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

The original cut of this chapter was much longer, but I'm saving all that good stuff for chapter five as chapter four has already run to twenty-four pages. And maybe now it won't take me so long to get chapter five out. How does that sound?

_**All good soldiers wait like warheads:**_ If there's anything—anything at all—that I took away from four blurry college years, prescription medication, alcohol abuse and a tragedy, it was a case full of Bad Religion CDs. If I'd escaped with nothing but those and my life and that was all I got, I'd have still ended up on the plus side.

_**Funny how all dreams come true, like a fool I'm into you:**_At the stove, Mia is singing the English theme "Dreams Come True", from _Fushigi Yugi_. I love _Fushigi Yugi_—and I love discussing the magical-world story smackdown between Yu Watase and Rumiko Takahashi *^_~*. (That's not to say that I don't enjoy a good early episode of _Inuyasha_; but the bloody thing's just gone on too long in my opinion.) (Boggy—does that fall under Offensive Fic #4? *^_^*)

**Scooby Snacks: **Mia bribes White Blaze with bacon to go wake Rowen, much as Daphne Blake will bribe Scooby-Doo to go somewhere scary by offering a Scooby Snack.

**Corrosive effluvia:** As far as I know, there are no demons that have corrosive saliva in Japanese lore, particularly not the type of demon we're currently dealing with here. But in my studies of magic, a common theme is that every spell cast by someone takes on their unique personality traits—they color their own magic, so to speak, add their own inflections and accents. Also, two of my favorite movies in the whole world are Ridley Scott's _Alien_ and James Cameron's sequel, _Aliens._ (Although _Aliens_ gets extra points for starring the oh-so-yummy Michael Biehn as gorgeous Corporal Dwayne Hicks. Oh that 80s eye candy!) Anyone who's seen the H.R. Geiger-esque Aliens knows that the down side of killing them is the high possibility of getting shrapneled by their extremely corrosive blood, and I wanted to include something similar in my demon, not just for danger factor but also to show that the Ronin are dealing with a spellcaster who's, not to put too fine a point on it, toxic.

**Next chapter:** The Ronin go dumpster diving, Mia begins to sort out the clues as to what they're dealing with…along with some other hints she's been getting from someone else.


	5. The Tropic of Sir Galahad

**Author's Introduction:**

(*Firestar peeks out from around the doorjamb, ready to dodge if anyone throws a weapon*)

Here I am. Before I begin, I just want everyone to know that I _so_ appreciate all the reviews I've been getting for this story, and to answer the questions people have written notes asking me, Yes, I am going to finish it. I can't give anyone the ETA they seem to want though—I'm planning a double bachelorette party for two friends and fighting like mad to get down to 116 lbs before they both get married this summer (almost there! 4 lbs to go!), all while trying to be creative, draft a webcomic, keep my apartment clean and try to keep my sanity. But let's see if we can't make a little headway here. (*settles down and begins eating leftover Marshmallow Peeps*) Oh, don't look at me like that, these are only 28 calories a Peep. (*smiles and winks*)

I know it's taking me a while to get this down on paper, but I dearly love hearing what my readers think, whether it's via review or PM. I may not always respond, but I can promise you I read every one! So thank you for reading and taking the time to tell me how you feel about it. I want everyone to have as much fun with this as I am!

Now let me see. Where were we…? Ah, yes!...

This was originally supposed to be part of chapter four, but I didn't want to wait so long to update, and the chapters of this story seem to be getting massive, not that I'm complaining. Actually I'm quite pleased, and I hope you all are too.

When last we saw the guys, they were digging for bones in the park, while Sage and Mia made an appearance at Hiro Imamura's funeral service. Things got complicated on both sides, but no one's bleeding.

Yet.

* * *

**Cross My Heart, and Hope to Die**

_A Ronin Warriors fanfiction by Firestar9mm_

* * *

**Chapter Five: The Tropic of Sir Galahad**

_Sometimes late when things are real and people share the gift of gab between themselves  
Some are quick to take the bait and catch the perfect prize that waits among the shelves  
But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man  
That he didn't, didn't already have  
And Cause never was the reason for the evening  
Or the tropic of Sir Galahad  
So please believe in me _

(America, _Tin Man_)

* * *

Ryo smoothed the dirt almost reverently over the hole they'd filled in, after Cye had taken pictures of the disturbed earth. He couldn't help but feel like he was sealing a grave.

Kento had offered to search for the missing head of the animal they'd found buried in the earth, but now he circled back to join his friends, looking glum with his hands in the pockets of his dark overalls. He kicked the earth with a scuffed work boot in disgust. "It's not here."

Rowen emerged from a nearby bush, nodding in agreement as he brushed leaves off his dark t-shirt. "No head, man. No skull, no teeth, nothin'. It's gone. All I found were a coupla pork chops, but they weren't eaten."

"Pork chops?" Ryo scratched his head. "In that bush?"

"Unda it." Rowen nodded. "Whatever animal this was, it couldn't reach 'em to eat em. If th' head wasn't missing, I'd say th' poor critta starved t'death."

"Its neck was sticking _out_ of the ground," Cye mused, looking down at the disturbed ground. "As if the head were the only part of it that was exposed. I suppose if someone _wanted_ to remove it, that would make it easier—it would stop the animal from struggling or fighting back."

"No animal would allow itself to be buried neck-deep in dirt," Kento said, rubbing the back of his own neck reflexively. "I mean, _I_ wouldn't."

"Not if it wuz _conscious_," Rowen joined in. "But if it wuzn't…"

"Do you think that it was done on purpose?" Cye asked. "Putting the food out of the animal's reach, I mean? If it were buried here, it would have that bush in its eyeline, so it would be able to see what was beneath it, but not get at it."

"It would make sense if th' person who did this wanted t' torture th' thing," Rowen said, shrugging. "I mean, that's just plain effed up."

Ryo sat on the ground, his eyes slitted in fury, his blood boiling at the thought of someone restraining and harming an animal that couldn't fight back. "Mia was right. A person did this, for sure. They restrained or drugged this animal, tortured it, then _killed_ it. Whoever did this, they're a _coward_." Wildfire grit his teeth; there was no breeze to ruffle his tangled hair, but it seemed to have gotten wilder all on its own in accordance with his mood.

"But _why_?" Cye asked. "Why torture the animal? Why take the head? What is the _point_ of any of this besides utter sadism?"

"Maybe this person just gets their jollies from bein' a jerk." Rowen shrugged again. "Still, keepin' a skull is just plain creepy."

"No," Cye said. "It's more than a trophy. This has to mean something."

"Mia will know," Kento said, with cheerful confidence that his "big sister" would solve this mystery. "Let's bring the bones to her. You think she and Sage are done with the funeral stuff yet?"

"What about the camera?" Ryo asked, letting Rowen help him up from the ground. "Shouldn't we get the pictures developed first? Mia will want to see the scene the way it was before we dug it up."

Cye nodded. "There's a one-hour photo developer a few blocks from the diner."

Kento's ears perked up. "An hour is a long enough time to eat cheese fries…"

"You read my mind, mate," Cye laughed, and the boys started heading back to the CJ, happy to put the grisly murder site behind them for now. But Ryo glanced over his shoulder as they departed the meadow, knowing that the evidence of what they had found would always be on film…and in their minds.

* * *

Mia and Sage were silent all the way back to the Jeep, but as soon as the doors clicked shut their mouths clicked on.

"I wish you hadn't mentioned that you'd try to get your colleague's work published," Sage said. "It's going to be such a disappointment to his wife when she realizes it can't be done."

Mia frowned, adjusting her seat belt. "You know, Sage, for someone who has so much going for them, 'I cannot do it' is your middle name. What makes you think it can't be done? It's at least worth a try, and you know I didn't mention it on purpose to upset that woman." Arching a brow, she added, "Talking of upsetting people, I'm not the one who made Hiro's assistant _cry_. What's gotten _into_ you? What was all that _stuff_ back there?"

Sage's mouth slashed into something that wasn't quite a smile. "Oh, that? I was just _pretending_ to be your friend. _Pretending _we'd gone through something important together."

Mia blew her bangs out of her eyes with an exasperated breath. "Oh, _grow _up, Sage! You know I didn't mean it like that."

"I _never_ know what you mean," Sage burst out, looking almost relieved, as if he'd been wanting to say it for a while. "You confuse me completely."

"Well, _forgive_ me for being such a burden," she said bitterly, rolling her eyes, but before she could go any further he cut her off.

"Don't _say_ that." His voice became an ear-shattering roar in the enclosed space, shocking Mia into silence. Sensing he had the upper hand, Sage pressed his advantage, speaking rapidly as if the words had gone septic inside him and he couldn't keep his thoughts to himself any longer. "I'm tired of you constantly implying that my concern for you is some kind of _chore_, and I can't believe you'd _joke_ about that night—that night!"

Mia blinked rapidly, her mind rewinding the last hour until she remembered what he was referring to. "I didn't mean to—"

"You didn't mean to!" It came out on a mirthless laugh, and the smile he turned to her was equally sharp and joyless. "All I've been through, all I've seen, and _that_ is the nightmare that jolts me awake, even after all this time."

Mia gazed at him with wide, shocked eyes. She'd had no idea. "_You_ started it," she said, but with none of her usual vigor. "_You_ brought it up, not me, and now you're yelling at me for trying to make light of it?"

The mirthless smile faded, and his face was open and unguarded for once; the look he gave her was unbelievably tender. "Mia. I almost lost you that night. That will never be light. Not for me."

In the quiet, he seemed to collapse on himself, huddling down in the driver's seat and rubbing at the bridge of his nose, shielding his eyes with spread fingers. He turned the key in the ignition, but the sound of the engine coming to life didn't mask a weary sigh, as if she'd completely exhausted him.

Mia felt incredibly guilty, not just for hurting his feelings but for giving him a hard time about "babysitting" her—which she hadn't realized was a job he took very, very seriously. She wasn't sure what to say. She wanted to reach for him, but instead elected to give him the space he seemed to need.

They drove in silence, Sage's hands mechanical at the wheel and the gearshift. After a few blocks, Mia hazarded, "I'm sorry. Every time we see each other, there's some crisis."

Sage glanced at her, then put the blinker on. Mia listened to the _click-click_, puzzled. They were nowhere near the highway towards the cabin—they weren't even at an intersection.

When he pulled over to the side of the road and cut the engine, the silence was loud and ringing in her ears. She grew steadily more alarmed as he released his seat belt, the better to lounge in the driver's seat. Leaning against the driver's-side door, he considered her with eyes the color of twenty minutes after sunset.

"Every time we see each other, there _is_ some crisis," he explained, "because you and I _only_ see each other when there's a crisis."

It took Mia a few seconds to wrap her brain around the logic, but once she did, it made an absurd kind of sense.

"Think about it," Sage pressed. "Unless there's a demon overlord threatening to enslave humanity or suits of armor come to life and start running around on their own, you and I don't spend much time with each other unless the whole group gets together. It's not like we...hang out, or anything." The slang sounded stiff rolling off his cultured tongue, but he managed.

"I…" Frowning, Mia realized that he was absolutely right. "Are you saying you _want_ to hang out with me?"

"Why, is that odd?" Sage turned to look out the window, as if he didn't want to see her face when she answered. "I mean, you'll spend time with Ryo or Kento, but not with me. I see so little of you, and I'm not sure why."

"I didn't think you'd be _interested_," Mia realized aloud, the words filling with truth as she spoke them. "I didn't know you _wanted_ to see more of me."

Sage's expression was fragile as he turned back to meet her questioning gaze. "Mia, I'm here _now_. The guys wanted to surprise you, to get everyone together to see you, and I've come, and you don't think that's because I _wanted_ to? I came here for _you_."

Mia felt her face heat with a rush of blood. "I…I didn't know. I think...I think there's a lot I didn't know."

Sage tilted his head in the way that meant he was looking at her, really _looking_ at her. It was so hard not to shudder under his pale gaze.

"Are you hungry?" was all he said.

The mercurial change of subject was too quick for her; her brain stalled for a second and her mouth disengaged. All she could get out was "What?"

"I asked if you were hungry," he repeated.

She forced her mind to resurface from those eyes and wrap around the question. "Um, starving, actually." Even as she thought about it, her stomach rippled with a sudden hunger pang.

"So am I," he said. "Would you like to go get something?"

"With you?" Sometimes she wondered how she could remember long-forgotten histories and reel back legends without any trouble, but as soon he looked at her for more than three seconds her tongue stuck and tumbleweeds capered through her brain.

"No," he said. "I thought we'd go to two separate places, then meet back up at the car." His eyes twinkled, and the smile bled down from them to touch his lips.

She blushed. She hated sounding stupid, and with Sage it seemed to happen more often than not. "…Sorry. I'm slow today."

"No," he said suddenly, his eyes turned back to the road. "You're not slow. I'm asking the wrong questions." Tilting his head towards her once more, he asked, "Would you like to have dinner with me?"

Again, her body threatened to shake with nerves. She told herself that this was ridiculous. It was _Sage_. It wasn't like they'd never shared a meal before. They'd shared hundreds. He was asking to be polite, that was all.

Suddenly, the idea of killing time at the cabin waiting for the others seemed quite repellant, and the quiet warmth of his company beckoned to her. "Yes, please," she said softly.

* * *

They ended up at a pleasant little café, the outdoor tables sheltered by an awning, and Mia had to wonder if he'd chosen the place because he liked it, or because he thought _she_ might. It was only after the hostess had seated them that she suspected it might be the latter; she was smiling at the pale fairy lights twined throughout the surrounding shrubbery, but his look of approval was trained on her, not the décor.

Mia was buoyed suddenly by the idea that he was trying to please her, even if it was just to smooth over their earlier misunderstanding. Such was the nature of Sage's apologies; they were quiet, and if you weren't paying attention there was a chance you'd miss them, but they were always sincere, even in their subtlety.

Without her conscious thought, a smile was curving her lips and her eyes were hooding in comfort at their familiar dance. While each of her boys was different and special to her in his own way, the relationship she shared with Sage was something else again. It was a complicated fabric of extremes; of losses of temper; of apologies offered with actions, not words; of an acceptance of each other regardless of their different temperaments. It wasn't the brotherly warmth she felt for Ryo or the easy affection she shared with Kento, but she'd become somehow used to the way she and Sage drove each other crazy, and she knew that without their duel of wills, some part of her would atrophy, lonely and sad.

Mia had learned long ago that a useful side-effect of hanging out with someone as annoyingly good-looking as Sage was that it never took long for the waitstaff in any given establishment to notice him, so besides looking special for being seated with his group, there was the added bonus of not having to wait long to be served. He, for his part, tolerated the attention with a cool, detached expression, his violet eyes flickering to the side every so often to show that it was an effort. Tonight was no exception, and the beaming waitress took their appetizer order before Sage had had a chance to even get properly settled in his own chair after pulling Mia's out for her. Normally that particular antiquated display of chivalry was something she could have done without, but whereas she would have argued about it with another man, she knew instinctively she ought to let Sage have his way on it, and said nothing. The waitress repeated their appetizer and drink orders rapidly, then was off like a shot, promising she'd have someone there in less than a minute to fill their water glasses.

"No hurry, really, it's...there's no need...to...rush," Sage sighed as the girl departed, realizing he was talking to empty air. Mia could only smile at him.

"You know," she said after the busboy had brought the promised water, "I'm glad you use your powers for good and not for evil. Trust me, if everyone I met fawned over _me_, the temptation to take advantage would be awful."

Sage's eyes narrowed, but he was smiling. "How do you know she's fawning over _me_? Maybe she's interested in _you_."

Mia laughed at the unexpected joke, but returned his volley. "Can't be. Not with these thighs."

Sage's smile faded into a relaxed expression, dawnsky eyes drifting to half-mast. "I don't see anything wrong with your thighs."

Mia's throat closed in defiance of the water she was in the middle of drinking, so she swallowed hard and then put it down, willing her face not to flood with color. The table looked suddenly like a tennis court, Sage on the other side, eyes carefully neutral, waiting for her to make her play.

Steeling herself, she smiled, and it was easier than she'd thought to look casual. "That's because the tablecloth's hiding them. Now, what are you ordering? If I order something different, we can share."

It was the right move; Sage's eyes twinkled in appreciation of her jest, but he didn't pursue the topic any further. Opening his menu, he asked, "What makes you think I'll agree to sharing my entree with you?"

She picked up her own menu, beaming. "What makes you think I'll ask permission?"

Sage actually laughed, and Mia smiled for real, knowing she'd won the round. "Brat," he said, but his tone was affectionate, and he returned her smile.

* * *

There was a one-hour photo developer down the block from the Starlite diner, and a few smooth words from Rowen convinced the girl behind the counter to jump their roll of film to the front of the queue. Victorious, the four Ronin wandered down the block and scored a window table at the Starlite.

"What'll it be, Kento?" their waitress asked, dimpling at her favorite customer.

Kento grinned. "French fries, Serena, and don't skimp on the cheese."

The girl's heavily made-up eyes twinkled, long black lashes closing over one in a wink. "Sure, honey. Back in a minute."

"Now _there's _a girl who knows the way to a man's heart," Kento sighed, watching the girl's hip-swinging walk back to the kitchen.

"Speaking of your heart, if you keep eating those fries it'll attack you," Cye laughed.

"Worth it," Kento said with a grin.

Cye looked at his watch . "The pictures should be done before we finish here. At this rate, Sage and Mia will beat us back to the cabin."

Ryo unwrapped his drinking straw, then poked the lemon slice in his water glass till it capsized. "Do you think Mia's okay?"

Rowen grinned. "No worries. Sage is wit' her, and I'm sure he's takin' real good care of her."

Kento snorted. "Yeah, twist his arm. Sometimes I think he'd be happier if he could pack her up in a cat carrier and take her everywhere with him. He acts like if he takes his eyes off her for one second she's going to get attacked by ninjas or something."

"Kento!" Cye and Ryo groaned playfully, the latter tossing his napkin at their friend and repeating "ninjas" with a laugh.

"Come on!" Kento argued. "Don't tell me you haven't noticed. I can't believe Mia hasn't told him off about it yet."

Cye's eyes sparkled with a new idea, and he presented it to the table at large with a note of wonder in his voice. "Maybe she likes it."

Ryo looked puzzled, as if that thought hadn't occurred to him before, but Kento interrupted before he could speak. "Gimme a break!" Hardrock said. "Mia hates that crap."

The more he thought about it, the more Cye realized he was making sense, and his words gained velocity with the force of conviction. "I'm serious! Mia knows Sage isn't overprotective as an insult. It's his way of telling her he cares, and maybe she allows it because she appreciates his attention."

Ryo's tiger blue gaze had narrowed to slits of suspicion. "What are you saying?" he asked Cye, and it was clearer now that he had never considered that one of his own comrades might have such intentions towards his beloved "sister".

"What he's sayin' don't matta. Sage'll neva make a move," Rowen laughed. "Sage's idea of romance is havin' a girl tie a handkerchief t'the tip of his lance before he _jousts_ someone."

Cye chuckled. "Could you imagine Mia tying a handkerchief to someone's lance before a joust?" he asked.

Ryo laughed too, the joke having neatly defused his display of machismo. "Mia would get on the horse and joust the guy herself!"

Discussion of the idea was stalled by the arrival of the waitress with their dishes.

* * *

About halfway through dinner, the waitress stopped being so obsessively attentive to their table. Mia was sure that she had overheard some of the teasing banter they'd been volleying back and forth, and once she delivered their dishes she gave Mia a very knowing smile and made herself scarce afterwards, stopping by only one more time to ask them if they'd like coffee or dessert. Sipping the cold pear sake she'd ordered, Mia realized suddenly that the waitress now thought she and Sage were on a date. Part of her felt silly, because that wasn't strictly true, but it startled her that a bigger part of her felt a little important knowing a stranger thought she was on Sage's arm.

After all, it wasn't like she hadn't ever toyed with the idea.

More than once.

Who could blame her, after all? Even just aesthetically speaking, he was a sight—making hearts pound everywhere he went, charming everyone with the way he spoke. The guy every girl wanted and every boy wanted to be.

And the most fascinating, maddening part about it was, he didn't seem to care about any of it. Mia sometimes wondered what it was like to be like Sage—to be _that_ arresting, to walk into a room and have three-quarters of it stop what they were doing to watch you.

Even now, that thing he was doing with his glass—holding it with just the tips of his fingers, rolling it so that the remainder of the sake swirled sparkling and silver at the bottom of it, his eyes hooded and lazy in the warm contentment of something as simple as sated hunger—it was carelessly lovely.

She almost had to physically shake herself out of these thoughts. As always, she reminded herself that he was younger than she—as if it mattered anymore, really—and barring that, he could have any woman he wanted and he didn't seem to want any of them. He'd end up with a nice, proper wife and a nice, proper life, and he'd never given any sign that he wouldn't be happy with that lot.

And she wanted him to be happy. She wanted _all_ her boys to be happy.

"So, who do you think is going to win that war for Earth?" Sage asked, eyeing her. "The Ronin or the forces of evil?"

Mia grinned—that calm, graceful demeanor hid a razor wit that she loved when he let it out to play. "Ronin," she said. "Evil's got a team of losers on the bench and nothing in the bullpen."

He chuckled, and it was a nice sound, warm and full. Another wonderful facet of him that rippled to the surface only rarely, that laugh. "Good answer."

She felt warmed by even the small praise, and thought herself special for being able to call forth the magic of that laugh.

He smiled, one pale eye on her, the other obscured by thick blond hair. "Now that I've lulled you into a less guarded state of mind with my fabulous comedy stylings…" The smile faded just a touch, severity spilling into it. "Are you all right?"

She looked down. It'd been so nice, and he had to go and ask _that_?

"No," she said softly. "I'm not."

He nodded at the answer he'd been expecting. He waited for her to continue.

"It's not even like I really _knew_ the man," she sighed. "We weren't, like, _friends_ or anything. I can't help but feel like it shouldn't be bothering me this much."

"It is disturbing," he said gently. "To come across something like that."

She blinked. She was grateful for the show of support, but surprised as well—it was not like Sage to make excuses for someone.

And looking into her own heart, she knew the real answer. She just wasn't sure speaking it aloud would be smart—once words were thrown into the air, they couldn't be pulled back.

Too late. He'd seen. "What?" he asked, brows dipping over his eyes. "What is it?"

"What's disturbing is I'm getting _used_ to this," she finally said. "Why do these things always happen to us? After all we've been through…you start hoping for maybe two seconds of something that doesn't…" She fumbled for the right word.

Sage supplied it. "…_suck_?"

The slang sounded so alien coming from his lips, and his expression looked just as amusedly bewildered as she felt, that she had to laugh. It felt good, and some of the tension eased out of her back. He _understood_. She should have known he would.

"_Yes_," she breathed, giggling at their shared misfortune, and he was laughing too. "Where's the cartoon sunset? When do the credits roll? When do you get…" She trailed off, afraid of the feeling bleeding into her voice.

"When do you get to be happy?" he finished for her once more, voice soft, just below a normal speaking voice, as if he mightn't be speaking to her, but to himself.

Her heart jumped painfully in her chest. He _knew_. Could he sense the hurt child in her, the one who'd wept over the corpse of an old man, the one whose tears had dotted her fingers as they flew over a keyboard in the very next second—the one who'd realized that the fairy tale come to life might not have a happy ending?

Did he ask himself the same question? Was he wondering about "happily ever after" too?

She wanted very badly to ask, to reach for his hand, but he'd just do what he always did when she brought up this sort of thing-he'd smile and dodge her skillfully with a witty remark, even though they both knew it wouldn't distract her. And she'd let him get away with it, because deep down she was afraid of the possible answers. If he were unhappy, it would break her heart, and if he already had all he wanted...

Instead, she turned her head to the side and spat a different question. "Where the _hell_ is my tiramisu?"

Sage chuckled softly, gaze dropping to the plastic card that held the dessert specials. "Maybe I should have ordered dessert."

For what she felt was possibly the first time all day, Mia knew exactly what to say.

"We could share," she suggested, nudging the extra fork toward him.

Putting the plastic card down, he returned her smile. "I'd like that."

* * *

After leaving Serena the waitress a generous tip and agreeing to her request that they come back soon, the four Ronin began walking the few sunset-drenched blocks back to the one-hour photo developer. Rowen had the tabloid out, its cover folded back over its spine to reveal the page with the story about the beast. Lines furrowed Strata's brow beneath his blue forelock as he studied the article.

"Don't waste your time, Ro," Ryo advised. "We've been over that thing a dozen times. There's nothing else in there."

"I keep feelin' like we're missin' somethin'..." Rowen trailed off, blinking his blue eyes at the page. Then he glanced around the street with new attentiveness before looking back at the page, snapping his finger against it in triumph. "I knew it. It's here."

"What is?" Cye tensed immediately, spreading his feet to anchor himself, and Ryo looked questioningly at his friend. He still wasn't sure exactly what had happened at the park the day before, but he knew that Cye wasn't the only one who'd been spooked by it. Mia had been extremely upset as well, and even Kento had been rattled.

"I mean, _here_ is where these pictures were taken," Rowen explained, holding out the magazine. "Check it out."

A closer inspection of the article revealed that Rowen was absolutely right. One of the photos was a shot from inside the alley where the police had found what was left of the body of a homeless person, and if you looked towards the mouth of the alley you could see across the street. Although it was blurry, it was the pink and purple neon sign of the same nail salon they were currently standing in front of.

Trotting across the street, Ryo took a few cautious steps into the alley itself and found more evidence to support Rowen's theory. He could see the same sewer grate and dumpster that was in the pictures, along with the same graffiti on the brick wall—red spray paint turned fuschia with age. Up close, Ryo could clearly read the scrawled message—"Long is the way, and hard, that out of hell leads up to light".

"Well, shit," was his answer to his friends, who were staring across the street expectantly. Not surprisingly, a disagreement broke out almost immediately.

"Let's get the pictures and get out of here," Cye said. "I'm not in the mood to be zapped again."

"We _hafta_ check this out!" Rowen argued. "There's prob'ly a clue or somethin'."

"Easy for you to say. It didn't try to kill _you_," Cye snarled.

While not the most diplomatic of the Ronin, Kento was straight as a die. He solved the argument easily by saying, "Look, I don't wanna hang around here, either. Cye and me will go in and pick up the pictures. Rowen, if you want to go play Sherlock Holmes, knock yourself out. I don't think you're gonna find anything, but it's up to you. We'll be back in a minute."

"Deal," Rowen said cheerfully, loping across the street to join Ryo.

As the blue-haired Ronin left them to their work, Kento gave Cye a serious look. "If anything goes wrong, though, we're going over there."

Cye didn't argue. Rather, he balled up his right fist and smacked it into his left hand with a knife-slash smile. "If that thing shows up again, it had better hope I don't catch up to it."

Kento smiled.

* * *

Ryo was already beginning to wish he'd offered to go to the funeral with Mia. Sure, it would have been awkward, but it probably would have smelled a hell of a lot better than what they were doing right now.

"This is too disgusting," Wildfire declared, his voice stunted from trying not to inhale. He was sorely regretting wearing the jeans with holes in both knees-he was standing in a pile of half-empty juice boxes and every time he moved something that felt like freezing Jell-O would swipe against his exposed skin.

"Take it like a man, Ryo," Rowen advised, flicking a discarded french fry at his friend. "We've had it pretty easy up until now."

"Cye can't ride this electrocution thing forever," Ryo threatened, banging a fist on the metal wall of their current confines. A mistake—he ended up smearing cold ketchup on his fist. "Aw, _dude_."

"They collected th' evidence an' took pictures," Rowen said calmly. "An' they've both been attacked by th' thing. It wuz our turn to get our hands dirty." Pleased with his own joke, he grinned at Ryo. "Get it, Ryo? Get our hands dirty?"

Ryo didn't laugh. "I hate you," he muttered, tiger blue eyes narrowing to slits. He could hardly be blamed for being cranky—he and Rowen had been in a dumpster, knee-deep in trash, for the last fifteen minutes. By contrast, Rowen seemed to be happily wallowing in the refuse, "looking for clues" as he put it. The most they'd found so far were a few bones, but a closer inspection revealed them to have once belonged to a chicken before it was fried by Colonel Sanders. There didn't seem to be anything else of interest in the alley. Ryo was about to crawl across to Rowen and suggest they abandon the search when the pile of garbage he was perched on shifted, pitching him forward. Unthinkingly, Ryo put one hand out to stop himself from falling face first into the trash, and his hand sank up to the elbow, putting his nose dangerously close to the top layer of refuse anyway.

"Ohhhhhh, _maaaaaaannnnn_." Withdrawing his arm, Ryo groaned and wished he hadn't worn a short-sleeved shirt. His arm was covered in sticky pink goo, and he was now wearing three bracelets that might have once been large, diner-style onion rings.

Rowen chuckled. "You found a milkshake!"

"If you don't shut up, I will knock you unconscious and leave you in here," Ryo threatened, but the last words were born on a whine and didn't sound all that menacing. Pulling off the onion rings one at a time, he threw them at Rowen. "I can't believe I let you talk me into this!"

"Ay. _Ay!_ No throwin' trash!" Rowen declared, trying to block the onion rings. One bounced off his head. He managed to deflect the second one, but the third, which was a little bigger than the others, looped around his wrist as he flicked it in defense. His once-white sleeves were now covered in panko crumbs and what looked like cocktail sauce.

"Two points!" Ryo cheered, as though he'd just won a ring toss game.

But Rowen had stopped shaking his wrist with a serious look on his face. "Maybe ya get ten points," he said. "I think ya found a clue!"

He extended his wrist towards Ryo, and Wildfire could see that the shaking had loosened some of the panko coating on the object, and it wasn't an onion ring-it was a collar, complete with a dangling, bone-shaped license tag.

"It's not an onion ring, but how do you know it's a clue?" Ryo asked, reaching to scratch his head and then thinking better of it since his fingertips had brushed some discarded pad thai. "Anyone could have thrown that out."

"Who throws out a dog colla?" Rowen said. "It ain't broken or snapped. Maybe it belonged t' the dog we found in th' park."

"Even if that were true, how'd it get all the way here?" Ryo asked doubtfully.

"Maybe th' head is in here, too!" Rowen said. "Ya think?"

Ryo shook his head and frowned. "No. Why would someone cut off a dog's head and carry it all the way to some random location to throw it in a dumpster?"

"This ain't a random location," Rowen said. "Th' paper said the beast got someone here."

Ryo continued to look unconvinced. "I mean, anything's possible, but I think you're reaching, Ro."

"Maybe, but I just gotta hunch, an' there's been a lotta dogs runnin' around this whole thing. Mutant ones, an' dead ones, an' stuff. Let's bring it to Mia." Wrinkling his nose at the collar, he added, "Let's clean it up first."

"Let's clean _ourselves _up first," Ryo laughed, in better spirits at the thought that their lunatic expedition might have done something useful. "Ready to get out of this dumpster?" He offered Strata his hand.

Even as they started to climb over the lip of the dumpster, Rowen began to argue that they should continue their search for the head he was now convinced was somewhere in the trash below them. "I still think we oughta—"

The petition was stalled by the sight of Hiro's satchel, which Rowen had carried with him all day. Sage had seemed pretty certain that the monster wanted the bag, not Mia herself, and so Rowen had offered to take it with them instead and see if the creature rose to the bait. Seeing what was playing out before them, both Ronin realized that Sage had been absolutely right.

When they'd started their dumpster dive, Rowen had propped the satchel up against the side of the alley to keep it safe, figuring they'd see anyone entering the alley who might have ideas about taking it. Under normal circumstances, this plan would have been a good one. The problem was that the thing currently attempting to take the satchel had not entered the alley from the street.

Indeed, it hadn't entered the alley at all. Plain as day, both Ronin saw the big, furry paw reaching slowly for the bag like something out of a nightmare, claws extended as if to help pull its target toward where it lay—the open sewer grate. There wasn't much to see except the clawed paw, but it was far too big to belong to any domestic animal. Even from here, they could see the paw was close to twice the size of White Blaze's, and the tiger was not small. How the beast was even managing to wedge the questing appendage out of the narrow grate was astonishing, but Rowen's brain spun with horrible visions of a large dog standing up on its hind legs in the sewer below, reaching out the grate like a puppy trying to get to the cookie jar. There was no mistaking what it was—red lights flashed in the darkness beyond the grating as it reached for its prize, first two, then three separate lights, burning in a hellish-looking triangle. As the Ronin watched, the hideous claws stabbed into the leather satchel, puncturing it in places, and began to drag it towards the grate.

All of this happened in the space of a few seconds, and then Rowen jolted into action. Scrambling ungracefully out of the dumpster, he landed hard on knees and one hand, then bolted across the alley to grab the satchel in a diving tackle. Ryo tried to follow, but Rowen's quick movement had shifted the trash so that his foot was trapped between a smashed wooden crate and a discarded toaster.

"Gotcha!" Rowen said, looping his hand through the satchel's handle and tugging. "Gimme that, ya big slobberin'—"

He was cut off by a tremendous pull from the creature, whose claws were still embedded in the satchel. With a yell, Rowen was dragged across the concrete, his arm disappearing to the shoulder in the sewer grate. "What the _hell_—!"

Ryo was alarmed enough to throw caution to the winds and wrench his foot free from the trash, feeling cool air hit the scraped skin as he flipped clumsily over the side of the dumpster and belly-flopped onto the concrete, all previous aversions to the garbage they were coated in were forgotten. Uncaring about the pain or whether the thick substance sliding down his tortured ankle was blood or Yoo-Hoo, he raced across the alley and grabbed Rowen under the arms, hauling him backwards. Or trying to—the beast was not about to give up the satchel without a fight.

Hissing in a breath, Rowen stumbled and screwed his eyes shut tight. A mewling sound trickled from between his suddenly grit teeth, and Ryo knew the monster's other paw wasn't idle beneath the sewer. A low, rumbling growl was vibrating just beneath them.

"Let go!" Ryo hissed to Rowen. "It's not worth your arm!"

"It's worth _somethin'..._if this thing wants it so badly!" Rowen grated out, squinting with the strain. "An' I ain't givin' it up! I promised Mia I'd bring it back t' her!"

"Mia will under—_stand_!" Ryo retorted, but they gained a precious inch of ground in the right direction, although Rowen groaned with pain. To his credit, Strata shifted his position, trying to brace his feet against the grate for more leverage.

"Pull, man," he wheezed. "Pull as hard as ya can, an' don't stop even if my arm comes off!"

"Rowen—"

Pounding footsteps alerted both Ronin to the arrival of the calvary—Kento blasted into the alleyway. "Hang on, Rowen!"

Before Ryo or Rowen could shout a warning, Kento had slammed his considerable muscle into Rowen's shoulder, knocking both boys dangerously off-balance, but also shoving them an entire foot backward. Ryo went down, dragging Rowen with him, and the added velocity was enough to bring the monster paw back out of the grate, still clinging with single-minded desperation to its prize—and completely vulnerable to an attack from above. Cye was happy to oblige. Brandishing a trowel that they'd used earlier to dig the bones up in the park, he brought it down with both hands to stab the monster's paw. Blood exploded from the wound and the paw retracted back into the sewer grate with a high-pitched yelp.

"And stay down there, you mangy bastard," Cye snorted, chucking the bloody trowel to one side idly. Turning, he regarded his friends with worry. "Sorry I didn't get here faster. Everyone all right?"

Chuckling, Rowen held his hand out to Cye. "I owe ya an apology, man. I don't wanna see that thing never again!"

Smiling, Cye hauled Rowen up carefully while Kento assisted Ryo. "No apology necessary, mate. I'm just glad you've still got both your arms!"

"Idiot," Ryo said good-naturedly, but his voice shook unmistakably as the adrenaline rush left him. "I told you to let go! What's wrong with you?"

Now that the immediate danger was over, Rowen was happily back to sleuthing. "I'm tellin' ya, there's somethin' important about this satchel an' this collar an' this alley! I'm sure it has t'do with the bones we found in the park. We gotta get back to Mia an' tell her! She'll figure it out."

"First we have to get you bandaged up," Kento corrected. "Damn, man. Look at your arms! There's blood everywhere!"

Rowen glanced down at his arms. One sleeve was completely shredded, blood oozing from half a dozen rough scratches. His other once-immaculate white sleeve was stained red. "Whaddaya mean?" he said, looking confused. "It only scratched one'a my arms!"

"Then what's all over your other sleeve?" Kento asked.

Ryo looked green. "You don't want to know."

* * *

The sun shone like a new penny at the end of the world as Sage navigated the Fairlady out of the city. They'd been quiet for much of the drive, and not for the first time, Sage was grateful that Mia was one of the few people he could sit with for hours without feeling pressured to speak. There were in fact a lot of things he wanted to say to her, but the silence was too lovely to break, and he was afraid that broaching one topic would inevitably lead to others—for instance, he still felt awkward about catching her undressed that morning, water slicking her skin. He wasn't sure _why_ it had been such a big deal—it had only been as revealing as seeing her wet and shining in a bathing suit, and he'd done that plenty of times, so he wasn't sure why this had felt so much more...scandalous.

Then again, her bathing suits weren't indigo and lacy, he thought, then quickly tried to steer himself towards sobering thoughts: kendo stats, kittens drowning, monks immolating themselves in protest.

"Thank you for supper," Mia said softly, startling Sage out of his thoughts abruptly enough that he tapped the brake reflexively. "I wish you'd have let me pay for half."

He shook his head. "Mia. Don't be silly."

"Why is that silly?" she asked. "You did something nice for me; I should thank you."

"I didn't go out of my way for you," Sage insisted. "You're a lady. I'm a man. Things are—and should be—expected."

Mia clucked her tongue good-naturedly. "Please. It's you and me. You don't have to treat me like a lady."

Sage allowed his amusement to color his voice as he responded. "You are a lady. Whether you like it or not."

It was the right thing to say; Mia laughed softly, fidgeting with the skirt of her simple black sheath. "Thank you also for coming with me today."

Sage only smiled, one eye on the road and one on her. "I didn't do anything important," he said dismissively.

"You were there," Mia insisted, her amusement forgotten in sudden passion. "That is important. It was because you lent me your strength that I didn't drown in my own memories this afternoon."

Sage just shook his head, and while his smile faded, the look he slanted her way was admiring. "I didn't lend you anything. You're the strong one, to face that once and willingly walk into a situation that would make you relive it. Compared to you, I'm a coward. I live in dread of the day I'll have to go through all that myself. I…I'm afraid of it."

While he didn't admit aloud that he was referring to his grandfather—speaking the words into the air would make it too real somehow—he had a feeling Mia knew him well enough to pick up the subtext. Sure enough, when she spoke her voice was as soft as her eyes, which had always rested kindly on him. "You know, Sage, when the time comes, you'll find you can do things you never imagined you could. You'll see how brave you can be."

Despite the severity of the subject matter, he found himself slanting a smiling at her, humbled in the presence of someone whose pain had given her such wisdom.

"Besides," she said, the usual brightness sparkling in her voice, "you'll have me there to back you up. You know, if you need me."

Sage chanced taking his eyes off the road to look at her, really look at her. There was no pretense in her smile, no challenge; it was not a duel of wills but a simple, honest offering of herself—an offer of her hand in his, her presence at his side, if he wanted it. For the first time he could recall, he wished his beloved Fairlady had an automatic transmission. If it had, he could have released the gearshift to reach for her. "I need you, Mia."

It turned out he never needed to release the gearshift—as though she could read his mind, Mia's hand closed over his on the lever, her slender fingers sliding over his knuckles to lace with his and squeeze. "Don't worry, Tin Man," she promised sweetly. "I won't tell anyone you've got a heart."

He chuckled, but he was more grateful than amused—both for the promise of her support in hard times that were bound to come, and for the warm weight of her hand over his. They said nothing more for a while, simply watched the sun sink lower over the road that led towards the cabin. It was only when Mia's grip on his hand relaxed ever so slightly and her breath turned deep and even beside him that Sage realized she was asleep. She looked frightfully young beneath her bright bangs and lowered lashes, the sun gilding her as it set the horizon on fire. Belatedly, he realized how exhausted she must have been.

That protective feeling flared in him again, and he slowed the Fairlady down a little. He didn't have to push the speed limit, just this once. Let her have a little time to sleep.

* * *

Mia woke slowly. Her sleep had been mercifully dreamless, nothing but warm lion colored light flickering behind her closed eyes until a gentle touch brushed her cheek. Instinctively, she turned towards it and her vision resolved itself into blond hair and violet eyes. "Mia. Wake up," Sage said, but not unkindly.

Blinking, she realized they were once again parked in front of the cabin, and that it was swiftly darkening twilight outside. She was immediately furious that she'd wasted even a half hour of time by sleeping. "Oh!" she exclaimed, blushing. "Why didn't you wake me sooner? How long have I been asleep?"

"I would have let you sleep longer," Sage said instead of answering. "You looked like you needed it. It's been a long day." Unbuckling his seatbelt, he got out of the car and circled to her side. "I would have carried you inside, but I had a feeling you might not like being treated like a damsel." He punctuated this with a knowing smile, leaning his forearms on the passengers'-side door.

Mia frowned playfully, and the swat she aimed at him was weak from slumber. "You're such a beast."

"And you're a sleeping beauty," he responded, opening her door and offering her his hand. Still pretending to pout, she allowed him to escort her into the cabin. White Blaze, who had been dozing by the door, lifted his head and twitched his tail in greeting, but made no attempt to follow them inside. Instead, he stretched his paws out like an oversized contented house cat. Mia wondered if there were a few less woodland critters running around under the trees tonight, and decided not to dwell on the somewhat gruesome concept.

Freshening up and washing her face helped a little, but Mia still felt fatigued, and she was surprised to see the other boys weren't back yet. Returning to the living room, she watched Sage shrug out of his suit jacket, folding it neatly and draping it over the arm of the sofa. Tilting his head to stretch his neck, he loosened his tie and draped it neatly over the jacket, unbuttoning his collar to expose a triangle of skin. That was about as casual as he ever got when dressed to impress, but for some reason it only made it more attractive to see it coming from a man who spent a lot of his time buttoned up.

To distract herself from the sight and the thoughts it inspired, Mia expressed her concerns about the whereabouts of the other Ronin. "I wonder what's keeping them," she murmured idly, looking out the window as if doing so would make the other boys appear on the doorstep.

Strong hands slid over her shoulders, sliding her own jacket down her arms. "Why don't you go and lie down for a while? It'd be more comfortable than sleeping in a sports car."

Mia shook her head. "I don't want to sleep anymore."

Instead of taking the comment at face value, Sage circled to face her, looking concerned. "Nightmares?"

She smiled wryly at him. "I don't have nightmares. I'm too busy starring in yours."

He flushed, brow creasing. "I…I apologize for speaking so harshly to you. I lost my temper. I am sorry if I hurt your feelings."

"You didn't, really," Mia sighed. "You were just being honest, and goodness knows the memory is worth a nightmare or two." She embraced herself, one hand rubbing up and down her bare arm as though she still felt the frozen waterfall's chill. Laughing sadly, she turned towards him and added absently, "Couldn't you have dreamt me someplace warm and happy? Someplace…nice?"

Sage's eyes were the color of the sky the minute before dawn, his gaze intense. She could see the struggle in his face as he dueled with the possible consequences of speaking his mind. Finally, he seemed to decide that the risk was worth it; when he spoke, his voice was soft, almost a purr.

"I never said I only dreamt of waterfalls."

Alarm bells began ringing in Mia's head. Their afternoon in the graveyard came rushing back to her, and the "later" they'd spoken so glibly of was suddenly upon them. Intellectually, she knew she ought to chirp something silly and flirtatious and extract herself from his personal space, but when she clumsily backed away from him he followed, and she wasn't trying very hard. She couldn't clearly remember when her boys had started towering over her; one day she had just suddenly realized she was shorter than everyone else. Sage was not above using his height against her; if she had ever had a reason to think he'd hurt her, it would have been scary. As it was, she simply marveled at gave him ground, putting a hand between them as though she could stop his advance; Sage walked into it and she felt a hastened heartbeat beneath her fingers. "Sage…"

Several acceptable escape routes were making themselves available to her: _Maybe you're right, I should lie down. It's been a long day and I'm not feeling myself. If you'd wake me when the others get here, I'd appreciate that, and thank you so much for—_

"What do you dream?"

_That_ was not what she'd meant to say at all.

Sage exhaled slowly, that basilisk gaze focused as intently on her as ever. Reaching up, he took her hand, pulling it away from his chest. But instead of tossing it aside, he held on, thumb pressing against her palm. Curling her hand around his, she squeezed, and he used the contact to pull her close. The movement was slow, deliberate. He was giving her the chance to run.

"Mia," he whispered. "Stop me."

There was no room for "stop" in her mind. Her senses were full of his scent—so warm and clean; a hint of the soap he used and the tang of aftershave—full of the rough feel of his calloused thumb tracing circles on her palm. "Stop" fell forgotten from her vocabulary and all she could see was empty space in him that she could fill, shadows across him that she could chase away. She wanted to be held; she wanted him to hold her. And something in those eyes…a light, the barest flicker that told her maybe, just maybe…

She tilted her face up; he bent down.

The kisses were a little desperate at first, as if they didn't believe they were really going through with it finally, tension singing through their bodies as if each believed the other would bolt.

Even as he backed her up against the wall to ensure she had nowhere to run, Sage tore his mouth from hers to gasp, "Is this wrong?"

"Oh gods, shut _up_," she growled, seizing a handful of his hair in one hand and pulling his head back to hers. He laughed against her mouth and just like that the tension was broken, but the kisses were no less fierce.

"Doesn't feel wrong," he murmured. "Feels…very…" He sighed, closing his lips on hers again. "…right."

"Stop…_thinking_," she ordered, pushing him towards the sofa with her hands, following him with shaking legs and a demanding mouth.

Straddling his lap made her taller, and she pulled him to her by his collar like every bad romance novel she'd ever read. He made a sound, a low groan that wound desire like a spring in her stomach, and then their mouths locked; he was kissing her back with the force of too many years of wanting the same thing and never acting on it.

_Oh, yes, yes, __**yes**_, Mia thought dizzily, eyes sliding closed, the better to feel the heat of his hands on her, pulling her closer; the better to hear his sharp intake of breath as she shifted her weight atop him, the a-line skirt of her dress hiking higher on her thighs.

When her lungs burned from lack of air, she reluctantly broke the kiss, one hand sliding down his chest, the other brushing aside the hair that covered his eye. He blinked shyly, face flushing, as if she'd begun to undress him with that one simple touch.

_It's okay_, she said—or was it thought? She wasn't sure.

The touch seemed to please him; his eyes darkened with an emotion that she couldn't place, the color of dusk falling. He leaned close once more, lips brushing against hers as he spoke. "Your heart's pounding," he whispered, so softly. "And so is mine."

This time, there was no desperation, no doubt. There was nothing, nothing but his mouth on hers, warm and demanding, nothing but the touch of his hands. One had settled on her back, just above the clasp of her bra beneath her dress. Knowing that he'd seen what she was wearing underneath the dress made her blood fizz with excitement; a slow stroke of his fingertip along the raised clasp let her know he was thinking along the same lines himself. A simple touch, nothing more, and yet her stomach turned to water and she shuddered, one large hand on the small of her back to keep her close, the other resting boldly on her thigh, sending shudders through her.

So good to hold him finally, try to show him with mouth and hands the desperate depth of feeling that she had for him. Sage groaned into their kiss, letting her know he appreciated her efforts; Mia opened her mouth to him, allowing him to sweep his tongue past her parted lips and caress her own. Fever washed over her skin and her fingers tightened around his neck. Nothing, nothing but this forever, felt like fireflies and ice chips all over and there was nothing else nothing just this—

Something jingled.

Mia jumped in Sage's arms; he tightened his hold on her, nuzzling against her throat, surprised as the intrusion shrilled again. Mia shivered at the abrasive sound. Too loud, not nearly as nice as those soft breathy sounds Sage had been making, that deep rumbling purr she could feel and hear at the same time…

"It's the telephone," Sage said. Mia's heart swelled as she looked at him—his pale eyes were hazy, lips swollen from kissing. She'd never seen him look so bewildered; it wasn't like him to state the obvious, and he seemed startled by the volume of his own voice.

That awful sound again, grating, insistent. Whoever was on the other end of the line wasn't giving up.

"I should," she whispered, staring into his eyes. "Probably."

"Hm? Oh. Yes," he said, just as dazedly.

Reluctantly, Mia got up from his lap. His hands brushed her arm, stroked over her leg, as if he wanted to touch her for as long as possible.

"Hello?" The receiver was heavy in her hand.

"_Mia?_" the voice crackled on the other end of the line. "_Is that you?_"

Mia's brain was too dizzy from cologne and kissing to remember any of the names or faces that might have belonged to the man talking to her. "Yes, it's me."

"_It's me, Ryo_," the caller continued. "_I'm at a pay phone. You okay? You sound out of breath_."

Even though he couldn't see her, Mia blushed to the roots of her hair, putting a hand to her bright cheek. "I'm fine! I was just running to the phone, that's all! I'm fine." Despite its harmlessness, the lie felt awkward. She'd never lied to Ryo before. "What's going on?"

"_We ran into a little trouble,_" Ryo explained. "_Rowen's hurt. He's okay,_" he added hastily, "_he's just a little banged up. We're going to head back now, but he needs to take it easy till tomorrow._"

"Oh, dear," Mia said softly, flushed cheeks cooling. "What can I do? Does he need anything?"

"_Yeah—bandages, aspirin, you know. We offered to take him to a doctor, but you know him—he keeps saying he's fine. He wants to come home and show you our clues._"

"You found something?" Mia asked, her concern for Rowen tempered by intrigue.

"_Sure did. It's—well, let us get on the road and we'll tell you everything. You and Sage okay?__"_

Mia glanced at Sage and her face flooded with color. "Sage and I are fine," she said quickly. "Why? What did you think would happen?"

"_Huh_?"

Mia cursed herself inwardly for her misstep. "Nothing. We're fine. Just—just be careful coming back, Ryo, and keep an eye on Rowen!"

Replacing the receiver, she cradled her head in her hands. Sage was up and at her side in a minute, the one-sided conversation jolting him out of his paralysis. "What? What's wrong?"

"Rowen is hurt," Mia reported. "Ryo wouldn't give me any details. He just said Rowen was 'banged up'. I shouldn't have let them go. I should have known this would happen."

Sage's knuckles dragged affectionately down her cheek. "And tell me, O Cassandra, how would you have known?"

Her lashes fluttered down and she leaned almost imperceptibly into his caress. "They'll be back soon," she said, trying to return to business. "I should wash my face; I should comb my hair."

She tried to shrug away from his touch, but Sage caught her chin gently, turning her face to his. "Mia. You're perfect."

Helplessly, she allowed him to take her mouth again, wondering how the heat of her blush felt to him, feeling as though the world were a bright shining soap bubble that could break at any minute. His kiss was gentle, and when she broke it he didn't chase her. "They're on their way," she repeated. "I...I'm not ready..."

Luckily, she didn't have to explain any further; he nodded. "It's all right."

"No, it's not, but..." She ran her hands through her hair. "Sage..."

"You don't have to say anything," he insisted. "There's a lot going on right now, work that only you can do. I'm not going anywhere."

Instantly, the pressure in her chest eased. Giving him a hopeful smile, she asked, "Do you mean that?"

He frowned, but it was playful, and he gave her the gentlest of shoves away from him. "Go. Do what you have to do—before I do what I _want_ to do."

* * *

If Mia had been worried that the other Ronin would walk in on her and Sage passionately entwined on the sofa, she needn't have—they broadcasted their approach long before they opened the front door. She'd kept herself busy by collecting various first-aid supplies and arranging them on the kitchen table. Since Ryo hadn't told her what had happened, she had no idea what she'd need, but she figured she couldn't go wrong with gauze, bandages, aspirin, scissors, iodine and an ice pack. Sage had politely stayed out of her way, and she wondered if maybe he didn't need a minute to himself even more than she did, but she didn't allow herself to dwell too long on the implications of that. "Any sign of them?" he finally asked as he padded into the kitchen where Mia waited, medical supplies spread out on the table in front of her.

"No, not y—wait," she said. A car door slammed outside, and a babble of voices could be heard outside the open window.

"Rowen, _slow_ down-don't you _dare_ try to carry anything in! Ryo, get him-"

"I'm _fine_, toleja I'm fine, Kento, grab that end of th' tarp, wouldja? Ay. _Ay!_ No shovin', no shovin'!"

Kento was the first one into the cabin, and Mia arched an eyebrow as she took in the sight of him—he had been wearing a shirt beneath his overalls that morning, but the shirt had since disappeared. "Not that I'm not loving the display of beefcake, but where's your shirt, Ken?"

Kento grinned and flexed a muscle. "Don't try to flatter me, gorgeous. My shirt's on Rowen, but maybe you could help me rig up something better?"

Mia was able to decode that odd sentence when she saw Rowen come in the door, side-stepping through at the request of Ryo and Cye, who trooped in after him laden down with bundles and packages. White Blaze followed close behind, and kept wary wood-brown eyes on Rowen as he manuevered through the door. Sage moved to help his friends, and everyone moved into the kitchen.

Kento's shirt had been fashioned into a sort of sling, keeping Rowen's right arm close to his body; Mia walked him to a straight-backed chair and sat him down. "What happened, Rowen—where does it hurt?" She spun to reach for the supplies she had set out on the kitchen table, then stopped short, wrinkling her nose. "What's that _smell_?"

Blushing, Rowen treated her to his most angelic grin. "Sorry, gorgeous. It's me. I wuz hopin' I could take a shower afta ya looked at my arm. It ain't as bad as it looks."

Mia cast a suspicious look at Ryo, whose grimly set jaw confirmed that Rowen was bluffing. "I'm not hurt," Ryo said, sliding a paper packet across the table. "Can I shower?"

"Please do." Mia sniffed again, unable to hide her expression of disgust as she pulled another kitchen chair close to Rowen. "You guys smell like you rolled in garbage. _What_ happened today?"

Cye was busy clearing a place for the tarp he was carrying on the kitchen floor with Sage's help. "Look at him first," Torrent instructed. "Then we'll figure it all out together."

Ryo escaped towards the shower. "Don't start the figuring without me, guys. I'll be back in a flash. Man, I feel like some Greenpeace guy is going to have to dunk me in dish soap like a baby duck in an oil spill."

"Ryo, throw those clothes _out_ when you're done," Mia called after him., "You, too," she added to Rowen, frowning at his shredded sleeve and bloodstained clothes. "I hope you weren't too attached to this shirt, because I'm cutting it off you."

"Nah, it's cool," Rowen said. "It sorta hurts t' move my arm anyway."

Sage was actually the most helpful in determining the extent of Rowen's injuries—he spent a few minutes poking, prodding and asking Rowen to move his arm certain ways, then declared that Strata's shoulder was not dislocated. "It's just a pulled muscle," he said. "We'll put some balm on it and wrap it up and you can take it easy for a few days, but it's nothing serious. The cuts look a lot worse, actually. So how big was it this time?" There was no need to ask what exactly had attacked Rowen.

"Dude. _Big_," Rowen said. "I mean, all I saw was its paw an' that was huge by itself. It came—" His eyes widened comically. "It was in the sewers. The _sewers_, man. That's how it's gettin' around. That's how come it c'n chase us all ova the city."

All eyes turned to Mia, who nodded. "That makes sense. If it can really change size—and I think we're all agreed now that it can—it wouldn't have any trouble getting down there and back out again. But why did it make itself so big if it was just going to steal the satchel?"

"It knew we were there," Ryo said, having returned looking ten times happier and smelling twenty times better. White Blaze seemed to have sensed that his best friend had had a bad day; he'd shoved his head in Wildfire's lap and was now happily having his ears stroked. "I saw its eyes. And there were definitely three this time. I saw them." Wildfire had ditched his ruined clothes in favor of flannel pants and a t-shirt softened by repeated washings. Mia felt jealous that she was still in her funeral dress, his relaxed look reminding her how uncomfortable and stiff she felt.

"Me, too," Rowen said, wincing as Mia swabbed the cuts with stinging iodine. "Ow."

"Sorry, but we have to keep these clean or you'll lose your arm for real," she said. "We can't let it get infected. You were actually pretty lucky, Rowen. If its paws were as big as you said, these are pretty shallow claw marks."

"It just wanted me t' let go of your bag," Rowen insisted. "It couldn't bite me cause it was tryin' t'pull th' bag with its teeth."

"How do you know that?" Kento asked. "When I showed up, all I saw was you with your arm down a sewer."

Cye held up the satchel. "No, he's right. Look." The leather was now peppered with holes, and some of them were misshapen and smelled strongly of sulfur. "Old Acid-Breath got its teeth in this, all right."

"_What_ is so important about that bag?" Sage said.

"I don't know," Mia said determinedly. "But I'm going to figure it out." Patting Rowen's thigh, she said, "Go and shower, but _carefully_, and then I'll wrap up your arm, all right?"

Rowen stood, dropping a kiss on Mia's head. "You're th' best, gorgeous. Do I get t'call ya if I need help washin' my back?"

Mia would have laughed if Sage hadn't cleared his throat very loudly, earning him curious looks from Kento and Ryo. Cye just smiled and shook his head. Swatting at Strata, Mia stood up. "Go on, scoot. I want to hear all about what happened today and then you're getting some rest. No arguments. Go."

Once he was gone, Mia whirled and turned to Ryo. "How bad was it really?"

Ryo rubbed his eye wearily. "I didn't really see anything once it got its claws in Rowen—he was in that sewer grate up to his shoulder. I felt it pulling, Mia. It was big. And _strong_. If Kento and Cye hadn't shown up, we would have either lost the satchel or Rowen's arm. Possibly both."

"You should have made him let go," Mia said reproachfully.

Ryo smacked his forehead. "Mia! I tried! He was babbling some nonsense about how the satchel's so important if this thing keeps trying to steal it. He was on a mission-we wouldn't have even been in the alley in the first place if he hadn't insisted we take a look around."

"Kento and I should have stayed with you two," Cye lamented. "It's my fault for being such a baby."

"No way, man," Ryo said. "You were there when it counted. Everyone's fine. No big deal."

"Next time I'm there the whole way," Cye promised. "No more splitting up. Agreed?"

"Agreed," everyone chorused.

After some discussion, the kitchen table was covered in newspaper and the day's spoils were arranged so that everything could be looked at all at once. The pictures were sorted through and placed beneath the bones, which were laid out to resemble their original shape as best as the Ronin could estimate it. When Rowen returned, Mia slathered the injured arm with antiseptic ointment and liniment for the pulled muscle, then wrapped him in gauze from fingertips to upper arm. Sage fashioned a new sling out of a pillowcase, and Rowen sat at the head of the table to preside over his beloved "clues"—he'd flatly refused to let Mia settle him on the sofa while everyone talked in the kitchen, and no one wanted the bones in the living room.

"My _gods_," Mia said, looking over the bones. "Where's its _head_?"

"That's the sixty-four thousand dollar question," Cye said. "We never found it. We looked everywhere nearby, too."

"And some places that weren't nearby," Ryo joked. "But yeah, nothing."

Mia's brow furrowed in thought as she picked up a picture. "And it was buried just this way? So that only the head would be sticking out?"

"Yup," Kento said. "We can't figure out why. Oh, and Rowen found some pork chops nearby."

"Thanks for not bringing those back," Sage said, and everyone laughed.

"But th' pork chops wasn't eaten," Rowen said. "It wuz like whoever buried th' dog wanted it t' see 'em, but not get t' em."

"Are we sure it's a dog?" Mia asked, touching the tail bones.

"Yeah, pretty sure," Kento said. "It's too big for a cat. Of course, we can't tell without the damn head."

"What's with the collar?" Sage asked, reaching for the object. "Was it in the park, too?"

"No, the dumpster," Ryo said. "Isn't that weird? We didn't find the head, though. Of course, we _were_ interrupted when the monster paw came out of the sewer and tried for the bag."

"Why were you even in the dumpster?" Mia asked. "Why go there?"

"Oh, it was Rowen's idea," Cye said. "Kento and I were picking up the pictures from the one-hour photo developer and Rowen realized that the alley was the same alley where the monster got that homeless person."

Mia frowned. "Why would the killer bring a dog collar all the way to the alley just to throw it away? Were they trying to destroy evidence that they killed the dog?"

"Why kill a dog to begin with?" Ryo asked. "It's just sick." It was obvious that Ryo was still incensed over the dog's gruesome end.

"They say most serial killers start wit' animals," Rowen pointed out. "Maybe th' killer was trying t' see how much nerve they had before movin' on t' something bigger. Like...practice."

"Either way, we can be sure a person killed the dog," Mia said. "A _human_ being, like I've been saying from the beginning."

"I agree," Ryo said. "The demon's just a foot soldier. It's a _weapon_. We're looking for a person, like you said."

"I hate to play devil's advocate here, but how do we even know these two things are related?" Sage said. "It's awful that this dog died such a horrible and lonely death, but why should that have anything to do with the monster that's attacking us?"

"It's too big a coincidence," Mia said, shaking her head. "The same person is definitely behind both things. I just don't understand the significance of killing the dog. It's the same as the incongruence of pushing Hiro down a flight of stairs. The demon would not have done that—a person did those things."

"But why?" Kento asked. "If whoever it was wanted to kill the dog and Mia's friend, why not just use the beast? Why make everything so complicated?"

"Complicated..." Mia trailed off, then smiled. "Kento, that's it."

"Yay!" Hardrock cheered, then stopped. "What's it?"

"It _had_ to be complicated," Mia explained. "It's a _spell_. A magic spell."

She was greeted with silence and stunned looks until Rowen smacked his good hand down on the table. "That's _it_? One, two, three, it's a magic spell? Come on, gorgeous! I got my arm chewed up f'r this. Gimme somethin' betta than _that_!"

Mia laughed, completely nonplussed by this outburst. "I'm serious! Why else would anyone go to so much trouble to arrange things in a very specific layout _unless_ it was a magic spell? It's...well," she brightened with inspiration. "Well, it's very like you!"

"Like us?" Cye asked. "How?"

Mia explained. "You five represent five virtues and five elements. You're a team, and you work together. Alone, you're not nearly as strong, but when all five are united, you can do incredible things."

"Like Voltron?" Rowen asked, cheering up at this new idea.

Mia sighed patiently, eyes dropping to half-mast. "Yes, Rowen. Just like Voltron."

"Ignore him," Ryo said. "This is interesting. Does it always have to be five things?"

Happy to be useful, Mia reached into her pocket for her lipstick. Uncapping it and twisting the tube up to reveal a column of a blue-pink lipcolor the stores were calling "Big Bow", she took a section of newspaper and drew a five-pointed star on it, circling it. "This is a pentagram—it's very widely used in magical practices, but nearly _every_ religion has had something to do with it at some point in history."

Kento had become interested. "_We_ did that once," he said, gesturing. "We did that back in Toyama."

Mia beamed at him, a smile full of pride for a pupil who had done well. "That's right! You five were protecting me and Ully. You concentrated your power into the symbol."

"The Ancient broke it," Sage cut in, remembering, "and we were separated. That's where you took the helm."

Mia blushed, dismissing the idea with a wave of her hand. "Books and cleverness. That's barely an assist. Listen," she continued eagerly, pointing to the pentacle. "The four major elements, they're all here—earth, air, fire, water. That's you guys."

Sage arched a brow. "Do I feel hurt that you've left me out?"

Mia smiled at him. "I didn't leave you out. The fifth element is spirit. I'd say you've got _that_ in spades."

The blond averted his eyes, but not before she saw the smile in them that he wouldn't let reach his lips.

"Does something go in the center?" Cye asked, looking at the symbol.

"A dumb girl who stuck her nose in. It's not important," Mia said. "It's how the five elements interface that make the magic."

"Is five a base number?" Rowen asked. "Can it be five anythin', like five fingers or five senses?"

"Nice of you to join the rest of the class, Rowen," Cye snickered.

"No, he's right," Mia said happily. "Lots of the rituals I've read about use five senses as the base for the spell."

"What do you mean 'base'?" Ryo asked, scratching his head. "This stuff's all Greek to me."

Mia pursed her lips in thought. "Well…take your armor, for example. How do you get it?"

Ryo frowned. "You know how. Something's trying to kill us, we know we need armor and weapons, we have our orbs, and we call out to summon it."

She nodded. "Right. You focus all your energy on your goal, and you utter an incantation, and there you have it." Leaning back in the booth, she sighed. "From what I've been gathering from my readings, magic is two parts force of will and one part technical know-how. Every spell seems to have ingredients—certain things it needs to act as a base. You can't just snap your fingers and make magic—you need a physical representation to focus your energy into." She reached for the photos Kento had taken. "As above; so below. That's what this is—our killer arranged all these ingredients together and brought a demon to life. We just have to figure out what demon this stuff is a recipe for, and then we can figure out how to get rid of it. Great work, you guys!"

Kento and Rowen were beaming at their big sis's praise, but Cye looked troubled. "I hate this," he admitted. "Demons are one thing, but when someone consciously reaches out for such evil…"

Oddly, it was Sage who offered comfort to his friend. "We'll stop it. It's no match for us."

Mia smiled at him, then tapped both her hands on the table briskly. "Okay, that's enough for tonight. Rowen, I want you to take two aspirin and relax, all right?"

"Aspirin sounds like a good idea, actually," Rowen said. "Anybody wanna play cards for a while? I'm all keyed up."

"Can you play with one hand?" Kento asked.

"I'll beat ya with one hand, but don't ask me t'deal." Rowen grinned. "Guys?"

"Sure," Cye said. "A distraction might do us all good, actually. Goodness knows I could use one."

"I'm in," Ryo said. "Mia? Wanna be the prettiest banker at the Wildfire Hotel and Casino?"

Mia laughed. "No, you guys have fun. I'm tired...I think I'll turn in early."

"Guess that makes me the prettiest banker, then," Sage joked, and the others laughed.

Mia dug into the junk drawer for the deck of playing cards as the boys headed into the living room, the kitchen table otherwise occupied by evidence. "Watch out for Sage, guys," she advised, handing the deck to the owner of that name. "He cheats."

"Never," Halo swore as he took the cards, his hand lingering on hers just a little longer than was necessary. "I promise."

Before she could respond, he turned and followed the others into the living room, leaving her alone to several entirely new thoughts.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

**Dear eff eff dot net: **If you could stop _eating_ my chapter formatting, I'd really appreciate it—it is beyond annoying to have to go back and replace my chapter content because all of my dividers and formatting have mysteriously vanished, and underline everything before bolding it because for whatever reason, the underlining has to be done before the bolding. It all just makes me want to run towards the nearest living thing and kill it. Stop doing that. Thank you.

"**Tin Man":** I love America's music. Shoot me. Think less of me. Nothing makes me feel freedom like hearing "Ventura Highway" and imagining being twenty-four and driving up and down Highway 13 in the sun, New York to Virginia and back again. People have been arguing for decades over the lyrics to "Tin Man", particularly the lyric "the tropic of Sir Galahad", but I imagine it's simply a reference to the practice of chivalry, which always applies to Sage under any moon.

**"Long is the way, and hard, that out of hell leads up to light": **Toyama has some pretty literate vandals—the graffiti scrawled on the alley wall is from John Milton's _Paradise Lost_.

**Tell us, O Cassandra, where has the sweetness of life gone?:** When Mia is beating herself up for not knowing the boys would get hurt if they went looking for clues, Sage makes a reference to **Cassandra**, beloved of the sun god, Apollo. Basically, Apollo loved Cassandra and gave her the gift of prophecy as a token of his affection. However, Cassandra changed her mind about being his consort, and as punishment, Apollo decreed that she would always be able to see the future, but no one would ever believe her warnings about it. Like all truly effective punishments, this one's true power was not in causing pain but instead in simply being intensely frustrating. Cassandra would have been able to say "I told you so" during the fall of Troy, but she went mad and was killed shortly after by Clytamnestra in _Agamemnon_.

"**Big Bow":** Mia's lipstick color is anachronistic—"Big Bow" was a limited edition MAC lipcolor from their Hello Kitty line. I only wish I'd bought two!

**Voltron:** Rowen makes a reference to the awesome Defender of the Universe, Voltron, when discussing the importance of teamwork, and this is not anachronistic. _Voltron_, or _GoLion_ in its original Japanese, is a terrific series that started its run in 1984, and has the distinction of being among the first wave of power-of-five shonen stories (followed later by_ Saint Seiya _[1987] and _Ronin Warriors _[1988] and a whole host of others). The _Voltron _story is the stuff legends are made of—a planet in peril, scary alien invaders, a wicked demon prince, awesome lion mecha, a beautiful princess who knows how to kick ass, and five handsome space explorers who fall from the stars to save the day. And space mice! What's not to love?

Slowly but surely, things are starting to sort themselves out. Next chapter: Mia does her homework, and the gang makes a plan to trap the demon. Luckily, it does not involve a skateboard, a pulley, and a fire extinguisher; anything else, I can't say. (*smiles and eats another Marshmallow Peep*.)

Mmmm…Peeeeeeeps.


	6. At The End Of The World Or The Last

**Author's Introduction:**

*Star smiles, offering a plate of cookies and glasses of plum wine* As King would have put it, Welcome back, Constant Reader! Welcome back indeed. We're quickly approaching the home stretch with this story, and while I can't make any promises, I can only hope to update with increasing frequency as we near the end of the tale.

Actually, the ending to the story was the first thing I ever wrote (back in 2007 and 325 miles away from where I'm currently standing—I'll never forget that day), and then I started working backwards till about the 75 percent mark, where I skipped back to the beginning and started posting. That's the real reason these last few chapters will come a little bit faster than the previous ones. That'll be fun, won't it?

Again, thank you, _thank you_ to everyone who's read and reviewed. Your kind words made me want to get back to writing that much faster, so if anyone out there thinks their reviews don't matter, think again—encouragement is always a nice thing to get in the mail!

* * *

**Cross My Heart, And Hope To Die**

_A Ronin Warriors fanfiction by Firestar9mm_

* * *

**Chapter Six: At The End Of The World Or The Last Thing I See**

* * *

_I never said I'd lie in wait forever  
If I died we'd be together  
I can't always forget her  
But she could try  
At the end of the world  
Or the last thing I see  
You are never coming home, never coming home  
Could I?  
Should I?_

(My Chemical Romance, _The Ghost Of You_)

* * *

Sage was in the shower, hands braced against the tiled wall, letting the water hammer down on his head like a punishment. _Stupid, stupid, __**stupid**_, he thought angrily.

Years of self-control and discipline out the window because he'd spent one second too long standing too close to her. She'd turned her face to his with that wistful look and he'd felt the answering longing in himself—the one that had never quite faded away—flare into bright life and take over.

Even hours later sensory memory seemed to have burned the curves of her body into his fingers, his palms. He'd elbowed Ryo out of the way to get into the shower first this morning because he couldn't shake the scent of her perfume clinging to his skin, teasing him. And one thought centered in his mind, repeating like a mantra. _At last. Mia, Mia at last._

The gods knew he'd _tried_—he'd tried his damnedest to keep her at arm's length. He'd tried being as cold and dismissive as possible. About fifteen minutes in, he'd realized that she was far too smart for him, but he'd stubbornly tried to keep on with it. Getting close to her would lead to nothing but trouble, and he didn't need any more trouble.

That, at least, was what he kept telling himself when he was lying awake and staring at his ceiling.

All the other girls he knew were so…_boring_. He didn't know a single other girl who'd smart off to a police officer or carry a baseball bat as a weapon, who knew how to fix a carburetor or what an inline-six meant. He didn't know any other girls who offered to split the check at dinner, who wore thigh-high stockings and miniskirts while rattling off complicated theorems that confused scholars far older than she.

He'd tried to ignore all that. So there was _one_ interesting girl. It didn't mean that she was the _only_ interesting girl in the world.

Still, no one could argue that she wasn't beautiful, intelligent, fun, sweet. She was all of those things, and he liked it—he liked _her_.

And, he realized, that was special, because he didn't like a whole hell of a lot of people when you got right down to it. He _tolerated_ them, but outside of his fellow Ronin, who were his best friends and heart's brothers, he was hard-pressed to come up with people he actually _liked_.

And he liked her—he liked her for her brave heart, her sun-steady loyalty, her fearless honesty. He liked her effortless femininity and her easy grace. He liked the way she wore her moods like clothes and wasn't afraid to speak her mind.

He liked her, and it was special—_she_ was special.

And he couldn't deny it anymore, he realized, not when he was standing there shaking from just the memory of her slight weight in his lap, her soft lips opening beneath his and that heady feeling—_At last, Mia mine at last_—thrilling him down to his finger tips.

He'd been so close to telling her to hang up the phone and come back to his arms. But he'd stopped himself, knowing that if she agreed he'd pull her down into cool sheets, learn her with kisses and exhaust her far beyond the reach of nightmares. The superior system had taken over, frightened by the intensity of his desire, and suddenly letting go of her had been the hardest thing he'd ever had to do.

Oh, but how they'd left it squeezed his chest tight—exchanging small talk politely like strangers, searching each other's gaze, voices soft and subdued and the wanting, the wanting jumping back and forth between them like electricity the entire time. Where had they left it? Where had it left _him_?

Alone, shaking, fighting to remember every last detail of soft skin and racing heartbeat, breathe deep the lingering scent of perfume she'd left behind.

A knocking on the door interrupted his thoughts. "Hey, Sage?" Ryo called. "No rush, but can you try not to use all the hot water?"

A mirthless smile slashed Halo's features. "No worries," he promised his friend. There would be plenty of hot water—he hadn't used any at all this morning.

* * *

No one seemed in a terrible hurry to do anything strenuous, given the climate of the last few days. Cye had requested a sparring partner, stating that he didn't want to be caught off-guard by the demon a second time, and Ryo had volunteered readily. Rowen was doing his best not to strain his arm and seemed happy to drift around the cabin, striking up various conversations. Kento had offered to wash the breakfast dishes, and Mia had been grateful for extra time to look over their growing collection of pictures and notes. Sage had followed Ryo and Cye outside almost immediately, and she didn't dwell on that—she wasn't at all prepared to sort out what she would do about him. There were more pressing matters at hand—he'd said so himself; and it was that which she kept reminding herself so she wouldn't have to admit how nervous she was to deal with what had happened between them the night before.

Rowen padded back into the living room on stocking feet—he hadn't bothered to get into the shower yet and was still in a black thermal and a pair of flannel drawstring pants, hair uncombed. "Whatcha drawin'?" he asked, putting his hands on Mia's shoulders and peering at the paper she was scribbling on.

Mia sighed, adding a few more lines to her sketches—pictures of the demon, angry and snarling, as capricious in size as it had been in her memory. "Just trying to clear my head. I've been staring at Hiro's notes for hours, but nothing's making any sense to me."

"Those are good," Rowen said, looking at the paper. "You should draw f'r comics."

"Horror comics, maybe," Mia laughed, but the expression didn't last. She sighed. "Why can't I figure this out, Ro?"

The hands on her shoulders began a gentle massage of the tense muscles. "Take a break. You'll get it eventually. Ya always do," he soothed. "If anybody c'n take a buncha bones, a crazy ritual an' a flesh-eatin' monsta an' figure out 'zactly how they add up, it's you."

Mia smiled, arching one shoulder into the rubdown. "It's not exact. It's formulaic, but it's in no way exact. If it were, they'd call it science instead of magic."

Rowen dug his knuckles into the space where neck and shoulder met. "Damn, girl. You are tense." He glanced at the open notebook beside Mia. "If it ain't exact, how come all these ingredients are so important?"

Mia made a soft sound as he hit a particularly sore place at the top of her spine. "Well, you know how Kento's chocolate chip cookies always come out better than mine?"

"I like yer cookies," Rowen said defensively. "But Kento uses diff'rent chips than you do."

Mia nodded. "Exactly. He shapes the recipe so that it suits him better, and he gets a different result. It's the same way with magic, I think—it's one thing to get all the ingredients together, but everyone's energy is different. The spellcaster is going to shape the incantation so that it belongs only to them. Even the ingredients they choose are linked to them—it's _their_ representation of what they're trying to do."

"Like a fingerprint," Rowen guessed. "A magical fingerprint."

She smiled as he wrapped up his massage with a gentle rubbing of her shoulders. "That's a great way to think of it. Unfortunately, the ritual's long over and I'll never be able to trace what the spellcaster used. That's why I'm focusing on the demon and trying to work backwards—maybe studying the end result will give me a clue as to how it came into being."

Rowen flopped beside her on the sofa and reached for the paper that contained the sketches of "the end result". "That third eye is throwin' me off," he said, frowning. "I keep waitin' for it t' shoot laser beams at us or somethin', but it doesn't. It doesn't do anythin'."

Mia laughed. "You read too many comics, Ro. Maybe the spellcaster just wanted to make the demon as scary as possible, and they thought three eyes would look more menacing than two."

Rowen shook his blue head. "Nah. There's got t'be more to it than that. Whoever's controllin' this demon is definitely usin' th' whole buffalo. Those claws had me pretty well pinned, an' even its spit is dangerous. Ev'ry single part of this thing is a weapon. I say we watch out f'r laser beams." He put the paper down and crossed his arms over his chest.

Mia picked up the pencil and added a sparkle to one of the drawings of the demon's face, just over the third eye, as if it were about to fire a laser beam. "One thing's for sure—whoever's behind this, they don't screw around."

Rowen took the pencil from her and drew a big, cartoony arrow on the biggest drawing of the demon, sticking out of the beast's chest. "Yeah, well, neitha do we," he promised.

* * *

By late morning, Mia was beginning to think she'd gotten nowhere. All she had was a list of clues that didn't seem to add up.

The story had started before she'd ever arrived in Toyama, she reflected as she reviewed her list again. Despite the _Sun-Times_' penchant for exaggerating the news (or making it up entirely), there _was_ evidence from other news sources that there had been a series of mutilation attacks, although only one human victim had been reported. No one had come forward to claim the body; the victim's face had been far too damaged for a positive ID and he had been carrying no identification, leading police and news teams alike to speculate that the man had been simply an unlucky vagrant who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

_1. Corpses torn to bits—mostly animals, one human (reported as homeless; no missing persons report on file)  
2. Hiro Imamura—murdered, pushed down staircase, broken neck—__likely the work of a human_

She underlined "human", then continued reading over her list.

_3. Small, hostile animal in library (3 eyes, 2 tails)  
4. Dead dog in park  
5. Small, hostile animal in park (3 eyes, 2 tails)  
6. Large, hostile animal in sewers (3 eyes)_

She put her pencil down. It _had_ to be the same animal, she thought for the four hundredth time. There was no way there were multiple animals running around with two tails and three eyes. But how could it change size? Why? And what did it want?

She added one more point to the list.

_7. Hostile animal seems to be after Hiro's satchel containing Hiro's notes—why?_

She underlined "why" twice, then put aside the list and reached for the satchel. Drawing out Hiro's notebook and the textbook on ritual magic, she began searching through them for all the demons who looked even remotely doglike. There was the _raiju_, of course, or lightning wolf, borne to Earth on a lightning bolt. It had been known to change size—trees that were felled by lightning were sometimes said to have been scored by the raiju's claws; but it could also be small enough that some superstitious folk attributed their stomach ailments to the raiju's sleeping in their navel. Perhaps a raiju wolf?

No, she decided, flipping the page. Raiju was generally a peaceful creature, except when there was a thunderstorm—that was when it tended to spaz out. And the skies had been clear all week. Besides, if the raiju had wanted to electrocute her and Cye, it could have done it easily without having to employ the aid of a downed power line. So no, not the raiju.

Maybe an okuri-inu? No, those only followed travelers at night, and all the attacks on the Ronin had happened during the day. She turned the page again. Tanuki could shapeshift, but they were mischievous and happy, not malicious. They would never attack her and the boys the way this monster had, and they certainly didn't have the presence of mind to down a power line or sneak about in the sewers waiting for their chance—tanuki were easily bored and lost track of things quickly.

Mia felt her temper shortening as she flipped page after page. Not a kitsune, those had nine tails, and their demon only had two. Not an okami wolf; those weren't reported to change size. Not a jimenken; those dogs had human faces, and this one definitely didn't.

Her mind drifted back to her conversation with Sage in a darkened doorway—it seemed like so long ago. She'd told him she'd almost wanted the monster just to be a rabid dog, and Sage had nodded his agreement. _"I sort of wanted it to be a..."_

_Maybe I'm thinking too vaguely_, she decided after a while. _Maybe it's not _**_like_**_ a dog as much as it _**_is _**_a dog._

And it was there that she found the answer—by looking up a demon that didn't _become_ a dog, but had in fact started out as one.

Hiro's textbook on ritual magic contained quite a few stories in which a ritual had been successfully employed, as reported "proof" of the effectiveness of such spells. The one Mia was looking at pertained to the _inugami_, quite literally, "dog spirit". What set the inugami apart from demons such as the raiju and the kitsune was that instead of simply coming into being as part of the will of the spirit world, inugami had to be created by human beings via sorcery.

And cruel sorcery it was—the story told of a woman who sought revenge against an enemy by burying her beloved dog in the ground up to its neck, promising to worship it if only it would do her bidding, sealing the bargain by sawing its head off and releasing its spirit as an inugami. The story never spoke of whether or not the woman achieved her revenge—all it said was that as payback for its painful death, the inugami haunted the woman for the rest of her days.

Mia shuddered, and it was the same chill she had felt in the library when she had crested the stairs and seen Hiro's forlorn corpse framed by the railings, the same cold that had gripped her when she saw those red lights flashing atop the power lines at the park. The more she read, the more right she felt.

According to the legend, the dog had to be buried and then surrounded by food that it could see but not reach—the boys had said they'd found meat near the skeleton of the dog that had been buried, but that it had not been eaten. The reason for this was to placate the spirit when it was released as an inugami; its dying wish would have been to eat, which was supposed to somehow make it obedient. Mia had a feeling that all it did was make the beast even hungrier, which would have explained the mutilated animals and that poor unfortunate man they'd found, a man with no one to miss him. And inugami were not trustworthy—they had been reported to turn on their owners and even possess them at times.

_That's it_, she thought, and she felt the same certainty that her grandfather had always had when he'd pieced together his beloved legends. _This is the one_. Now all they had to do was find out who was controlling the beast, and attack at the source.

She was about to get up and call the boys in for an update when she heard the sound of movement coming from the cabin's only bedroom. She'd slept there last night since she'd retired early, but she'd seen Rowen going towards it an hour before. Deciding to check on him—perhaps his arm was paining him more than he'd let on—she padded quietly down the short hallway.

Peeking around the doorjamb, she realized that the noise wasn't being made by Rowen, but by Sage, who was standing near the room's only window, tilting the blinds to let the sunlight in. Rowen was sprawled out on the bed, dead to the world—low blood pressure made the Ronin of Strata a sound sleeper anyway, and pain would only compound that. Still, the Warrior of Halo was nothing if not stealthy—Mia wouldn't likely have heard him either if he hadn't had to put aside the gorgeous no-dachi that became an extension of his arm in battle in order to adjust the blinds.

Spotting her, he held a finger to his lips, the message clear—_shhhhh_. She nodded, but remained in the doorway to see what he was going to do. Once he picked up the sword again she realized she should have guessed immediately; bringing the blade effortlessly up in a hanging guard, he directed the weak sunbeams to spill over his friend's injured arm, which was flung over the rumpled sheets. Not then or ever would Mia be able to tell if the gentle music she heard was magic or simply the wind chimes sparkling from the curtain rod.

Seemingly satisfied, Sage brought the sword down and indicated that they should leave with a flick of his head. Mia turned, half-expecting Rowen to stir, but he didn't.

"That was nice of you," she remarked as they returned to the front room. "Can I ask you something?"

"As long as it's not something about the meaning of life, or algebra," Sage said, and she felt something in her uncoil and relax at his seeming good humor.

Sitting on the sofa, she put her hands in her lap. "How do you know when that works?"

It was a good question; Sage smiled, sitting beside her, but at the other end of the sofa, leaving plenty of space between them. She wasn't sure what to make of that. "Halo never lets me down," he said. "It's like you said yesterday—it's magic. I call for healing, and healing comes." He shrugged. "I just...know. Rowen'll wake up feeling like a million bucks, and he'll never have to know he had a little help."

"I'm sure he'd thank you, if he did," Mia said. "I don't know why you never think anyone has to thank you for anything."

He smiled again. "You're my friends. Comrades. It's expected."

"You said that yesterday," Mia pointed out. "Why do you think we expect so much from you?"

He seemed to like that. "_I_ expect it," he explained. "It's automatic. I don't think of it. Like...breathing."

Mia searched his face, and found only the serenity of one who was truly wise. Eventually, she nodded, sitting back.

"Find anything?" Sage asked, reaching for the textbook, which Mia had left open to the chapter on inugami. Stung into remembering what she had originally gotten up to do, she reached for Hiro's textbook.

"As a matter of fact, I did. Take a look at this," she said, handing the open book to him, then settling back to watch his eyes sweep back and forth over the text like twilight-colored radar as he read. When he made the connection she'd made, his blond brows disappeared almost into his hair. Turning a smile towards her, he handed the book back to her. "Smartest redhead in the world," he said affectionately. "So how do we kill it?"

Mia's face fell, the blood that had flooded her face at the compliment draining away just as quickly. "Ah," she hedged. "I haven't exactly gotten to that part yet." Embarrassed now, she reached for Hiro's notebook. "There must be something in these books that will help us—"

Sage's hand was gentle but firm on her wrist. Chastised, she turned her gaze to him, expecting a lecture, but he only smiled. "There must be," he agreed. "You take the textbook. I'll take this. You'll help me with the big words, won't you?"

Mia's heart skipped almost painfully; she swatted halfheartedly at him, desperately turning her eyes to the pages in Hiro's notebook in an attempt to regain her composure. "No talking in the library."

Sage chuckled, settling down on the opposite corner of the sofa to read.

Sage was glad that Mia was so engrossed in her research, because he didn't want her to notice that he wasn't going to be much help; he'd really only wanted her nearness, and even that was turning out to be more troubling than he'd imagined.

* * *

_I'm in __**hell**_, he thought. His eyes had slid over the same line of text about four hundred times, but he couldn't focus when she kept…_doing_…things.

_Simple_ things, and that made it all the more maddening. She'd cross one shapely leg over the other, revealing the top of her thigh-high stocking beneath her simple pink miniskirt; she chewed idly on her pen cap, the tip of her tongue darting out every so often against the plastic. He was going to lose it if she didn't stop. Lose it entirely.

She hadn't mentioned the kiss since it had happened, and he was furious with her for being able to focus so intently on the task at hand, when he couldn't think of _anything_ but the taste of her mouth and the weight of her in his lap on that sofa, the ferocity with which she'd met his advance. Reaching deep within for the discipline he'd spent his entire life perfecting, he reminded himself sharply that there was a bigger maelstrom around them than just the dam of his feelings breaking. If the demon came for them and his focus was this shattered, he'd be of no use to anyone, least of all her.

And he would not let her down, he commanded himself fiercely. He would not let harm come to her, would never again come as close to losing her as he had that first night. He hadn't been kidding when he'd told her the memory of that night still rocked him badly. He still couldn't quite believe she felt well enough to joke about her brush with death, when his nightmares sometimes sent him stumbling through graveyards where every marble angel had her face.

_Look at her_, he thought idly, unable to reconcile the two images—an ice-bride locked within a wall of water and the cool, content girl curled into a corner of the sofa with a book. _Sitting there like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth_.

That mouth, soft little mouth opening beneath his and what skin he touched was fever-warm when she…

He had to physically shake the thought away, tossing his head, hair flipping off his eye and back again. _**Stop**__ this_, he told himself.

"You okay?" Mia asked, arching an auburn brow at him.

_**Scorpion **__woman_, he thought viciously. What kind of question was that?

"Ah...yes," he said, turning his attention to the address book in his hand for what felt like the fortieth time. He wondered if Mia knew how to read all the squiggly symbols that dominated the entire back of it, then flipped forward again. He allowed himself a little smile as he noticed a small note Hiro Imamura had written to himself in the margin of the day-at-a-glance calendar that took up the second half of the book. _Dinner with Eiko 8:00 pm at our favorite._ Next to his wife's name, Imamura had scrawled a little heart.

Sage wondered how that felt, to be so sure, to share a favorite place, to have things that only belonged to the two of you, a code only the pair of you understood. "Poor Eiko Imamura," he remarked idly. "It's a good thing she went to her sister's. I couldn't imagine dealing with all of her troubles in an empty house."

"Me, either. Even my house is never..." Mia's eyes were faraway as she looked up from her book. Sage hadn't expected more than a nod at what he'd said, but he could practically see the gears turning in his companion's steel-trap mind as she processed his statement. "...empty..."

Sage arched a brow, unsure of where she was going, but then her soft, faraway gaze ignited as though someone had touched a match to her. "That's _it_," she exclaimed, jumping to her feet with the force of her excitement and executing a little spin, red hair swirling as she moved. Finishing the turn gracefully, she beamed at him. "Sage, you're a _genius_."

"I'm pretty sure _you're_ the genius," he said, but he was pleased by the praise all the same. "I don't even know what I did."

"You're wonderful," she exulted, grinning. "I was so close I couldn't see it, but you're exactly right. Eiko Imamura. She said herself her dog is missing. Don't you remember?"

Brow furrowing, Sage examined his memory and realized that yes, Eiko Imamura had sobbed to Mia that she couldn't stay alone in her empty house, that even their dog had disappeared recently. "You think that Eiko is the one who summoned the inugami? But she seemed so upset." Sage didn't want to admit that there was a possibility Eiko had fooled him; her grief had seemed genuine at the service.

"Of _course_ she's upset," Mia countered, eyes snapping with excitement. Sage had to smile at her exuberance; there were few things more fun to watch than her running down an idea. "She summoned a demon and it's _killing_ people. Maybe she and Hiro were in it _together_!" Her eyes went wide with the new possibility.

"But _why_?" Sage asked. "Why would they do that? Why would they call up a demon?"

"Validation of Hiro's research?" Mia said. "Maybe they were just so immersed in it they couldn't help but see if it worked. I know I've been curious about some of the things I researched—I just didn't need any more proof that magic exists and there are people who know how to use it." She winked.

Sage knew that statement was for his benefit, but he had to admit she was on to something. "If Hiro was doing most of the work and Eiko was helping, it would make sense that she'd be upset and stressed out. She wouldn't have him to help her, and the demon is getting out of control—hell, it's already out of control. But this is all speculation, Mia. There's no way to prove it."

"I can talk to Eiko," Mia insisted. "Maybe when she's confronted with the theory, she'll break down and tell me the truth."

"Or maybe she'll send the demon to _eat_ you," Sage countered, more ferociously than he'd intended. "I won't let you risk it. And you're missing something important in your theory."

She only smiled at him, seemingly glad for the sounding board. "Enlighten me."

He chuckled, glad for the brevity she was lending to a situation that was the perfect plot for a horror film. "Okay, Miss Smarty Pants. You're the one who's been saying from the beginning that a person killed Hiro. If your theory is correct, then the killer is Eiko herself." He held out the book, showing her the page with the scribbled heart. _Eiko at our favorite_. "I don't think these two were on the outs."

Mia considered this. "Maybe it was an accident," she conceded. "Maybe Eiko was trying to convince Hiro to put the demon back, and they struggled. Maybe she came to meet him in the library before he met me—it would explain him asking me for additional time. He might have wanted to talk to her and get her squared away before meeting me. Maybe that's what he really wanted my help for—putting the demon _back_!" Again, the realization left her with a shocked look on her face. "Anyway, if they argued and struggled, she could have killed him by mistake. You don't have to be smart or even strong to push someone down a flight of stairs."

Her expression softened as she took in his reluctant expression; boldly, she stepped forward and took his hands in hers. "Sage, I know you're worried about me and I couldn't appreciate it more. But we've _got _to stop this thing, and if talking to Eiko puts me in danger I'm willing to take that chance. Maybe we can get out ahead of this thing before it kills again."

He couldn't help but smile at her selflessness. "What put such a warrior's spirit inside that little body?"

"Sorry, but your princess is in another castle," Mia quipped, but then her expression softened. "Hope you're not too disappointed."

"Quite the contrary. I prefer you this way," he said, using their entwined hands to pull her closer. They shared a laugh, and then the comfortable silence settled between their locked gazes until he broke it. "Kiss me."

A blush stained her cheek and her lashes fluttered, once, twice, nervously. She chewed her lower lip shyly as her head bent close to his. He watched her eyes drift slowly closed as their noses brushed and a sigh escaped her lips. Her expression was fragile, as if she were trying to hold onto a dream. "Sage…"

He refused to lose her to the doubt and guilt he'd been wrestling with. "Mia. Kiss me," he repeated, even as he closed the small remaining distance to make the decision for her.

The outside world be damned, Sage thought as their lips touched. _This_, this. Outside there was bleeding and danger and dying, but here—here there was nothing but shared warmth as she accepted his embrace, their breath mingling between kisses.

"You're trembling," he murmured, feeling her shudder against him.

"I'm okay." Her whisper was soft against his face.

He tightened his hold on her and felt the dissatisfaction of being away from her begin to numb, as surely as balm on a wound. Her arms wound around his neck, fingertips playing gently with the hair at his nape, and it was all he could do not to purr at the touch. How had he managed to hold her at arm's length for so long, not knowing he could have had _this_?

"Just for a moment." It was almost as if she were talking to herself and not to him. Her eyes were heavy-lidded and dreamy, and she snuggled against him as if she wanted to hide in him. "I just need…a moment…"

No. He tensed at the idea of her running from him again. A moment just wasn't enough, and there was nothing but bruised minutes and sharp little seconds until the next time—didn't she _feel_ that? "Mia. We can't keep wasting time," he said, his voice rough-edged with passion he could no longer keep in check.

She blinked like a waking sleeper; nodding absently, she shocked him by pulling out of his embrace and drifting towards the forgotten books. "You're right. You're right," she murmured, flipping through the pages of Hiro's notebook. "There should be a phone number somewhere..."

Sage was thunderstruck, cold rushing to fill the places she'd fit so well against him. Hurt by how badly she'd misunderstood, he pulled her back to him almost roughly, her hands opening in surprise, the book falling from them and spinning across the floor, forgotten. "I meant _you and I _can't keep wasting time," he said.

Her color was hectically brilliant, eyes wide. "Sage!" she said.

"I _won't_ lose you," he said fiercely. "Not to demons, not to distance. Not anymore." The exhaustion of confession and the force of the vow were soothed by the contentment of having arms full of her again. "_Kiss _me, Mia, or tell me to go."

Her fingers tightened on the sleeves of his shirt and she let herself collapse against him once more, lifting her face to him. Sage bent his head to take her mouth, relief stealing over him at the closeness he'd been aching for since the last time they'd been alone together. He let his eyes drift closed as their lips touched.

"You guys bored of reading a bunch of dusty books yet?" Kento's cheerful voice came around the doorframe before the rest of him did. "We were thinking of ordering in, what do you guys w—_ah_." The Warrior of Hardrock's eyes went wide, his lips pursed in a soundless whistle. "_Whoops_."

Mia and Sage sprang apart like every bad soap opera that had ever aired. Mia dropped to her knees, grabbing the book that she'd dropped earlier and letting her hair fall forward to hide her flushed face like a curtain. Striding past Sage, she waved the book at Kento. "No time for food. We've got a lead."

Kento perked up. "Asskicking time?"

"Maybe," she promised. "Get the guys together. Dinner can wait."

Kento took off obediently, leaving Mia and Sage staring at each other. "Eventually, we _are_ going to have to talk about this," Sage quipped, blond brows arching.

"I know." Mia clutched her book to her chest, blushing as if he'd just asked if he could walk her to class. "But not now."

"Not now," he agreed, nodding resignedly, and then he was past her, letting the air cool between them.

For now.

* * *

Sage spent a few nervous minutes wondering if he and Mia were going to have to explain anything to the others, but luckily as soon as all the Ronin were standing in the living room, an argument broke out almost immediately.

"No way," Ryo said, just as Cye said, "Absolutely not!"

Mia trembled and tensed beside Sage; as only a perfect partner could, he sensed that she was stopping herself from stamping her foot. Instead she crossed her arms. "It's the only way," she said for what seemed like the eighth time. "We have to stop the demon, and in order to do that we have to stop Eiko. I've already spoken to her about possibly getting Hiro's research published. I'll ask her to meet me at the university library. She won't suspect anything; she'll talk to me."

"I don't like it," Cye said, shaking his head.

Sage was happy that he wasn't the only one who thought it was downright insane to let her go confront Eiko. "Mia, it's too dangerous."

"I am the only one who can go," Mia reiterated. "Does anyone have a better idea?"

"I do," Kento said. "I'm goin' with you."

"So am I," Ryo and Cye added simultaneously.

"No," Mia said. "You can't. She knows me—she doesn't _know_ you. I can't be showing up with a group of strangers—she'll get suspicious, and then we _will_ be in danger. Don't you see it won't work?"

"You must allow us to accompany you," Sage said. "Even if we don't follow you into the actual meeting place, it's out of the question that you go unescorted. That is _our_ choice, Mia."

"I appreciate your concern, but you'll spoil any chance of us learning anything from her," Mia said desperately.

Rowen had the answer. "'Ere's what we're gonna do. _We_—" He pinwheeled his arms to indicate himself and his fellow Ronin, "—are gonna go t' th' liberry an' pick up Mizz Eiko. Then we're gonna bring 'er back here, to _our_turf, an' settle this f'r good."

"Good thinking," Ryo said. "Mia, you wait here where it's safe. Then, if Eiko agrees to come back with us, we'll be there to stop her from trying anything on the way. If she attacks as soon as she gets to the library, you'll be out of the line of fire."

"I don't like it," Mia said, crossing her arms. "I'll hate waiting."

"It's non-negotiable," Sage said. "We don't have a better plan, and you are too important to risk yourself like this."

"I want to go with you," Mia burst out before she could stop herself. "We're all in this together, and I'm no more important than anyone else!"

"_I_ think you're important," Sage said ferociously, then, catching himself, opened the floor to his friends. "Who's with me?"

"Agreed," Ryo said firmly. "Mia, it's for the best."

"You've done all y'can, gorgeous," Rowen said, his tone affectionate. "Our turn, okay?"

Mia chewed her lower lip, but she was no match for the stern, loving stares of her five friends. Eventually she gave in. "...all right, but I want you to _call_ me from the library the minute you know the lay of the land. That's _my_ non-negotiable; you _will_ keep me up to speed or I'll just come in there after you."

"Don't you threaten us," Kento said, but he was smiling. "You got it, babe. We'll be in constant radio contact."

"I think that's a good idea," Cye said. "Speaking of contact, Mia, how are you going to get in touch with Eiko?"

"I have Hiro's office number," Mia said, flipping pages in the steno pad she used to jot down notes for her books. "Let's hope that Eiko's been checking his messages. I'll ask her to meet me and give her this number, and then we'll just have to hope she calls back." She dialed, holding in a breath as the phone rang. As she waited, she reviewed the message she planned to leave in her head, and so was actually rather surprised when someone picked up the phone.

"Hiro Imamura's office," a voice said. At least, Mia thought that was what they were saying—it sounded as though the person speaking had a terrible head cold.

"Oh!" Mia said. What luck, to not only get an answer but to reach Eiko herself! "I—I was—This is Mia Koji. Mrs. Imamura, I'm so glad to have reached you instead of an answering machine."

The soft voice still sounded stuffy, but relieved. "Oh, yes, Ms. Koji, we spoke at the funeral. I'm just here sorting through Hiro's things. Please excuse how I sound...you can only imagine what this is like for me."

Mia could. She felt instinctively guilty for what she was about to do, but a glance over at the table where the Polaroids of the skeleton were laid out reminded her that this woman might be responsible for the death of the husband she was mourning. Tears didn't mean she was innocent. "Mrs. Imamura, I know this might be a bad time, but I'm so glad I caught you. The other day we were discussing having your husband's work published, and I was wondering if you'd be kind enough to meet with me to review some material of his." It wasn't exactly a lie, and that made Mia feel a little better—they _would_be discussing Hiro's research.

Luckily, this seemed to cheer Eiko up considerably. "That is so kind of you, Ms. Koji," she said, sniffing. "It would mean so much to me to see Hiro's research fulfilled."

"I really think I can help you," Mia said gently. "Would you be willing to meet me at the university library tonight, and then we can go someplace quiet to talk?" As she spoke, Rowen gave her a thumbs-up. Quickly, before she lost her nerve, Mia skillfully talked Eiko into meeting her at the library as soon as it was full dark, stating that she couldn't get there sooner because she had work that needed to be done.

"Thank you, Ms. Koji, thank you," Eiko snuffled as soon as they'd hammered down the details. "You have no idea what a big help you'll be to me."

"I _can_ help you," Mia repeated, still unwilling to believe that Eiko's involvement in this was malicious and not just an unhappy accident. "Please remember that, Mrs. Imamura, and I'll see you tonight."

"I'll be there." Eiko disconnected.

Mia hung up the phone and blinked at the pleased faces of the Ronin. "See?" she said cheerfully, trying to disguise her sudden nervousness. "Piece of cake!"

"That was almost _too _easy!" Ryo laughed, and Mia's stomach flipped. Something didn't feel right, and she wished her 'little brother' hadn't said exactly what she was thinking.

* * *

The rest of the day was devoted to preparing for battle. The boys sparred in the yard, checked their weapons and checked them again, discussed contingency plans for every possible sortie. Mia was proud of her prudent soldiers—they always hoped for the best, but were more than prepared for the worst, and that mentality had never failed them before. The problem was, she couldn't contribute anything else for now. She'd already done her part in setting the trap, and until they brought Eiko back to the cabin, there was nothing more she could do to help. That is, she _hoped_ they'd bring Eiko back to the cabin—if Eiko and the demon blitzed the boys, they'd have to deal with her right then and there, and Mia hated the idea that she'd be hiding safely at the cabin while her friends battled for their lives.

Worse, she couldn't shake the nagging feeling that things were falling into place a little too well. Suppose Eiko had caught on to what Mia was really up to by now. She'd had all day to think about it, and if she decided to stage an attack, Mia was sending the Ronin to the slaughter. The very idea of that was intolerable, but the boys had flatly refused to discuss the idea of her accompanying them any further.

All of this translated into her spending a lot of the day getting underfoot as she tried desperately to be close to her knights in the last few hours before they tramped off to war. She managed to while away an hour at the kitchen table helping Rowen fletch arrows, but soon her hands were shaking so badly imagining what he'd need them for that the Ronin of Strata sensed her discomfort and gently sent her to the living room.

"Hey, Mia," Kento said cheerfully, having witnessed the entire scene. "Think you can give me a hand over here?" he asked, displaying his naginata to her. The blade flashed as he tilted it, and for one moment she caught sight of her own face—eyes haunted and hollow, cheeks bright with nervous color.

Despite the fact that she knew Kento was indulging her and that whatever he needed was nothing he couldn't handle himself, she tripped eagerly over to where he was seated on the sofa. "Sure, Kento, what's up?"

Laying the staff of the naginata across both their laps, he said, "It's real easy. I just need you to hold that really steady. I'm sharpening the edge." Grinning at her, he added, "Did you know some knights used to sharp their shields so they could use the edges like a blade if they were disarmed?"

Mia actually did know that, but she smiled. "Really? That sounds smart."

"Yeah, but we don't need to do that," Hardrock bragged, scraping the whetstone he'd found against the shining blade. "We're too damn good to lose our weapons!"

Mia laughed, but it sounded brittle even to her own ears. Kento stopped his work, smiling so gently at her. Cupping a big hand over her knee and patting it, he said, "Don't be scared. This is nothing compared to some stuff we've done. You know that."

Caught, she looked down at her hands clutching the naginata. "I just...I hate that I can't be out there with you."

"We'll be back before you know it," Kento soothed, patting her again. "And we'll bring you the prize. That's something else that knights do."

Despite everything, Mia smiled. "What else do knights do?"

Now Hardrock's eyes twinkled. "They protect their princess. They take up arms for her, 'cause they'd do anything for her."

Sighing, Mia leaned against Kento's strong shoulder. "Why is it that the more nervous I get, the happier you seem? You sound almost relieved that this is coming to a breaking point."

"Hell yes I'm relieved," the warrior of Hardrock said. "I was a bit nervous when I thought we were dealing with some cloak-and-dagger murderer, but now that I know it's something mystical, I ain't scared. We can deal with that!"

Mia shook her head and laughed. "You know, for most people, it's the other way around."

Kento hefted his whetstone again. "We're not most people, baby. Now hold this for me. I want it so sharp that mutt won't even _feel_ its head falling off."

"Damn straight," she said, heartened by his enthusiasm. No, they were definitely not most people, not at all.

* * *

By the time twilight shaded down from the trees, they were as ready as they were ever going to be. Mia found herself hyperaware, trying desperately to hold on to things-the way Rowen's close-cropped hair had felt under her hands as she'd clasped her arms around his neck and hugged him, Cye's far-off gaze as he considered the horizon, the way the light of the table lamp was glinting off Kento's subarmor, making even a weapon of war look golden and friendly, Ryo's laughter as he gave instructions to White Blaze. She did not like the idea of being left behind while they rode into danger, because there was always a chance, however slight, that one or all might not return. Suddenly overwhelmed with anxiety, she spun and headed into the kitchen, intending to open the back door and get some fresh air; she couldn't let them see her so upset, not right before they left, when so much was at stake tonight.

She should have known Sage would be out there already, collecting the light of the dying day to hold close as he rode into battle. Now he seemed to shine in the center of the yard, as though he'd spent all day charging himself up to glow in the dark like a beacon. Mia halted unsteadily on the back steps; she was reminded of Kento's earlier talk of knights; the man before her now resembled nothing less than a young king, ready to take up arms to defend his lands from the demons of war. She felt suddenly small in the presence of such effortless majesty.

"They're ready," she said, somehow unable to force her voice above a whisper.

"So am I," he answered calmly, the nod of his head singular and precise. Unable to control her fear any longer, she leapt from the three crude wooden steps to fling her arms around his neck. He was rock steady to catch her, something that gave her hope; his voice was just as strong as he spoke comfort into her ear.

"We're going to take care of this," he promised softly. "And then you and I are going to have a long talk. About you and me."

"I'd like that." Her heart thudded wildly against her breastbone as she drew back from him. _You and me._ Her head spun delightfully with the possibilities of it, but there were bigger things to worry about right now. "We can talk...when you come back," she said, her eyes stinging. "So come back as soon as you can."

His eyes softened just the tiniest bit, and he gave her the smile he saved only for her. "_Watch for me by moonlight. I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way_."

He reached up, a cool brush of gauntleted knuckles against her cheek, the barest touch, then he was gone, into the house to join his comrades.

Mia was jolted out of her paralysis by the slap of the screen door against the frame, and she dashed quickly around the house. The boys would tell her that she should remain inside, out of sight, but she could not let her heroes leave without seeing them off.

Breathlessly, she rounded the house to see Ryo on one knee, hugging White Blaze around the neck. When the tiger saw Mia, he trotted obediently to her side, and she knew he would not leave her until there was no more cause to worry. Ryo grinned and held up one hand in a thumbs-up, and Mia tried to burn the image of that smile into her mind. The others looked similarly cheerful as they turned to head towards the car—they were taking her Jeep, to keep up the ruse that she was the one going to meet Eiko tonight. She wondered if they all felt as Kento did—relieved that there would be action finally, that there was something they could do to take a stand.

"Guys?" she asked. They turned as one to face her.

"Kick its ass," she said, her expression bloodthirsty.

They nodded with a vengeance.

* * *

Right from the beginning, the waiting was maddening. Mia paced the cabin floor with White Blaze's eyes following her for long minutes, thinking. Unfortunately she knew that the boys were right. She'd reached the limit of her usefulness on this one—books and cleverness weren't going to be any help if there was a demon attack tonight, and the best place for her was far, far away from it. But oh, how she wished she could help them, fight by their side instead of worrying herself sick over them.

She wasn't afraid for herself, not really—White Blaze was no stranger to warfare either. He'd taken his role as protector very seriously, and if some grotesque creature did come for them, she had no doubt he'd be warned way in advance of an enemy who smelled strongly and couldn't run as fast as he could. So she wasn't worried for herself, but she wouldn't be easy until her boys were back safe.

She almost wished she felt hungry enough to cook, just to pass the time, but her stomach was flipping and she knew if she ate anything, she'd vomit from pure stress. Instead she began to clean the cabin. It wasn't all that messy to begin with, but she desperately needed a distraction; she mopped the floors, dusted the tables, washed the dishes that the boys had left in the sink. She sang while she worked, hating the silence that rang through the empty house, until she elected to clean the stove, which had so much caked-on grease and grime in it that she needed to save her breath for scrubbing.

When there wasn't a speck of dust or dirt left in the cabin, Mia leaned back on her heels and blew out an exhausted breath, scrubbing a hand over her sweaty face. She'd shower, she decided, and dry her hair and that would pass the time, too. Maybe when she came out they'd be back, and she couldn't interrogate Eiko looking like a sweaty, dusty ragbag.

Getting to her feet and turning to head for the shower, she almost tripped over White Blaze, who'd kept his watchful eye on her during the entirety of her whirlwind cleaning spree. Chuckling, she bent and smacked a kiss against his head. "Enough!" she said cheerfully. "You don't have to keep such a close watch on me, big cat. I'm just going in to take a shower. If it'll make you feel better, you can patrol the house until I get out, O.K.?"

White Blaze flattened his ears and made a sound like a weed-whacker; his way of letting her know he was not happy with this idea. Frowning playfully, Mia opened the hall closet and selected Ryo's baseball bat from the jumble of sporting goods that threatened to cascade down (she hadn't been quite desperate enough to clean the closets). "Here. See? I'll take this in with me, and if anyone gets past you I'll knock them out of the park."

White Blaze made that annoyed sound again and pushed his head against her thigh, but didn't make any attempt to stop her. Rifling through her duffle bag for a comfortable outfit, Mia headed for the shower, hoping that the waiting was almost over.

* * *

"I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with B."

"Books. I spy, wit' my li'l eye, somethin' beginnin' wit' L."

"Literature. I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with T."

"Texts. I spy, wit' my li'l—"

"_Enough_, you two," Ryo roared at Rowen and Kento, one of whom was seated at the book-return desk and one of whom was leaning over the second-landing railing. "I can't _stand_ it anymore. Where the hell _is_ she?"

Sage and Cye, who had taken up posts at the north and east windows, turned back to glance at their leader. Ryo had been mostly quiet the entire time, but apparently an hour and a half of waiting once they'd arrived at the library had gotten to him.

Sage wasn't happy either. He could not shake the feeling that something was wrong, and every minute they tarried here made him more nervous for Mia's safety. "There are no pedestrians out there."

"There's no _anything_ out there," Cye agreed. "I'm wondering if we should search the grounds."

"We should do _something_," Ryo said, cracking his gauntleted knuckles. Even his wild dark hair seemed to be lashing with the force of his frustration as he paced. "Maybe we should split up and do a quick patrol."

"We said we wasn't gonna split up no more," Rowen argued.

Kento nodded. "Right. We should go together."

"We can't do that, either," Cye pointed out. "If Eiko is simply running late, she may show up while we're gone. It's either risk splitting up, or we call the whole thing off altogether."

After a quick huddle, Cye and Sage elected to stay in the library in case Eiko showed up, while Ryo, Rowen and Kento did a cursory search of the nearby grounds. Everyone seemed happy with that idea, especially Ryo, who was practically jogging in place in hopes of some action. "All right, you guys hold the place down. If you hear sounds of carnage, back us up, would you?"

Sage and Cye exchanged looks, then Cye gave his leader a warning look. "A _quick_ search," he reminded Wildfire. "Quick and quiet and if you don't find anything, come back here and we'll figure out what to do next."

Ryo clapped his gauntleted hands, as though they were finishing up a time-out in basketball. "Awesome. We'll be back before you know it." He sprinted out the double doors with Kento and Rowen in pursuit.

Once the others had vacated the library, Cye felt it safe to voice his concerns to Sage. "Between you and me, I think we've been squirreled," he confided.

"Something's definitely wrong about this deal," Sage agreed. "I don't like it at all, but I also hate to go back to Mia empty-handed."

"Should we call her?" Cye asked. "She might have an idea of how she wants to proceed, and she's bound to be worried since we haven't reported in to her yet. It's been a while."

Sage considered this, then shook his head. "Wait a little longer. She's already upset enough, and there's no point in calling just to worry her more. She's going to be even more agitated when she hears there's no sign of Eiko here."

"Do you think Eiko figured out the trick?" Cye wondered. "She might have been watching for Mia, and when she saw us instead, maybe she hid, knowing what was coming."

Sage set his jaw. "If that's the case, then Ryo, Rowen and Kento will flush her out. Either way, we're not leaving here without some answers."

The Warrior of Halo was very right indeed, but it would be at least another precious twenty or thirty minutes before he put the entire puzzle together. More's the pity.

* * *

White Blaze lay by the bathroom door, listening to the steady swish of water. The big cat's tail twitched. He knew that the Ronin had entrusted him with a very important job tonight, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, and he was missing it.

The big cat cocked his ear towards the bathroom door, hoping he'd hear the sweet voice he loved singing happily beneath the water, but no such luck. Poor Mia. He could tell she was unhappy, too—he'd watched her worry all day, and he knew she wished they were all still together. The redhead was so rarely unhappy, and he hated to see her seashore eyes darken with worry. Mia was his special friend; she had opened her house to him when he could not follow Ryo to the city, and his days were never lonely with her for company. She walked with him every morning, read parts of her books to him for approval, hugged him when they both felt sad, always shared her ice cream. He'd jump into the jaws of hell before he would allow anything to happen to his friend, and she was absolutely safe with him, the tiger reasoned. If anything bad came calling, he would protect her.

That _feeling_. It was like a scent on the wind—something far-off he couldn't quite grasp, but he knew it was Not Good, and maybe it was better not to wait until the danger breached the house. If he went out to meet it, Mia would never be at risk, and he could handle it before it got anywhere near her. The white noise of the water tapered off and was replaced by another sound he knew well, the click and whirr of a blow dryer; she would never have to be scared if he were quick about it and returned before she was finished cleaning up.

The decision made, the big cat rose and padded out his door with ninja stealth.

* * *

Ryo, Rowen and Kento had done a cursory search of the grounds surrounding the library, the gatehouse, and the humanities building, and they'd quickly come to the same conclusion as Cye and Sage. "We been had," Rowen said in disgust, scuffing a metal-toed boot against the ground. "There ain't nobody around here."

"We'd better get back to Mia pronto," Ryo agreed. "We're wasting time here."

But when they turned back towards the library , Kento noticed something they hadn't seen before-something they couldn't have seen, because full dark hadn't fallen until after they'd been closeted in the library for over an hour. "Check that out," Hardrock said.

"That" was a small window set in the side of the building, less than a foot off the ground, to the left of the double doors that led into the library. What hadn't been visible in the light of the dying day was that a lamp was on in the room the window opened into.

"Basement," Rowen deduced, and it wasn't long before the three Ronin found a way in around the side of the library-a storm door without a lock on it that opened to reveal a stone staircase leading down to a narrow, tiled hallway.

"Bingo," Ryo hissed, and with the exchange of a quick nod, the boys readied themselves and crept down the stone stairs as silently as they were able to. Rowen closed the storm door over behind them and the corridor beneath the earth was immediately plunged into near-darkness, the only light coming from the room at the end of the hall-the door was ajar, spilling just enough light into the hall for them to see the way to their destination.

The three Ronin moved quickly; the narrow corridor provided no cover and a quick twist of a few doorknobs by Kento revealed that the doors that lined the way were locked. They'd have no problem forcing them in an emergency, but small square windows set in each doorway revealed that the rooms themselves were dark, and there was no point in searching further when the lamp in the last room glowed like a welcoming beacon. The stingy light was enough for the boys to read the plates on each door—_Storage_; _Satou, K.; Archives; Lab_. And finally, the slightly open door at the end of the hall—_Imamura, H_.

Kento couldn't imagine working down in a dungeon like this, but he got the feeling that Mia's friend Hiro had probably liked it; it was private down here and quiet, and he could work uninterrupted while the world busied itself above his head. Still, he felt sort of sorry for whoever "Satou, K." was—they were stuck down here, too. Pointing silently to himself, he advanced to the front of his party and prepared to kick open the door, ready to scare the daylights out of Eiko if she were hiding in there. The element of surprise would work in their favor; she might be disoriented long enough for them to subdue her and tell her they weren't going to hurt her; they just wanted some answers.

Ryo and Rowen each nodded, and the Warrior of Hardrock opened the office door with a tremendous kick.

Or, tried to; the door's momentum was dulled almost immediately as it bounced into something and wobbled back towards the surprised Ronin. Tensing, they raised their fists and spread their feet to anchor themselves, but there was no sound from within the office, and nothing came rushing out to attack them.

The boys exchanged quizzical looks, until Kento finally broke the spell by saying, "...the _hell_?"

"Try it again," Ryo suggested, and Kento put both hands on the door and pushed, only to meet the same resistance.

"Something's in the way," he reported, and gave the door another shove. This time whatever it was moved enough for him to squeeze into the small office, but barely; the obstruction was fairly large and was now trapped between the door and the wall, leaving precious little space for the door to open.

Nothing seemed disturbed; the warm, friendly light was coming from a desk lamp that had been switched on, but there was no one sitting at the tidy desk. The desktop computer was also on, and a word processing program was open. From where he was standing, Kento could read the words typed onto the screen:

_I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE...IT'S TOO MUCH WITHOUT HIRO_

_I'M SORRY_

A sick feeling overtook the Warrior of Hardrock, and before he looked down at the object that had been blocking the door, he already knew what he'd see-the body of Eiko Imamura, lying with her bleached cheek pressed into a pool of her own blood. Dead. Very, very dead.

"Shit," he whispered. "Shit—" And then he was pushing all the way into the room, leaving space for Ryo and Rowen to follow him; their expressions were similarly horrified when they saw the sad tableau. Eiko's bright blonde hair was matted and sticky, the buttery waves soaking up the blood she lay in. A dark puddle had formed beneath her, a few red rivulets creeping back towards Hiro's desk. One hand was stretched away from her, and while Kento's intrusion had moved her and swiped the blood across the floor, the boys could see the ragged cut on her upturned wrist and knew without looking that they'd find an identical one on her opposite hand.

"Gods," Kento breathed. "_Why_? What was so awful that she'd have died before she told anyone? We could've worked it out—we would've _helped_," he said, voice soft with horror. "Mia said she'd help, Mia _promised_! Why didn't she let Mia help her?"

Rowen was thinking along different lines. "Somethin' ain't right about this. Why's she by th' door? Why didn't she sit at th' desk, make 'erself comfortable? It looks like she was tryin' ta leave."

Ryo didn't want to think about it. "Maybe she changed her mind, tried to go for help, but it was too late and she fell down to die here. See, she's got a bruise on her head, like she hit it or something when she fell." He sketched a line in the air to display what he meant, but refrained from getting close to the corpse to point it out.

Rowen shook his head. "Nah, man, it ain't right," he insisted. "She wrote her note. She didn't change 'er mind—somethin's wrong 'ere. Lookit this. She was runnin' for th' door."

That struck a chord in Ryo, and he strode to Hiro's desk, the final words of Eiko Imamura—_I'M SORRY_—burning in green pixels on the dark monitor screen. "Look," he said triumphantly, ignoring the haunting image and indicating the spotless desk with a wave of his hand. "There's a phone here. She could have called for help, called the paramedics. But there's no blood on the phone, or anywhere near the desk. She wasn't sitting here when she slashed her wrists. She didn't touch the phone. If she'd changed her mind about killing herself, why didn't she do the things that would have saved her?"

"She wasn't trying to save herself, maybe," Kento said, trying to mimic Rowen and get inside the dead woman's mind for a minute to see things from her point of view. "She's dying, and she runs to the door because she's..."

It dawned on them all at the same time, and while there was no hard evidence in the room to support the theory, they nonetheless knew they were right. It was Rowen who vocalized it. "_Chasin'_ someone," he said fiercely. "Someone else wuz in this room, an' they hit Eiko, knocked 'er down maybe, then tried t'make it look like she killed herself."

"Eiko woke up," Ryo continued, propelled on the combined force of their collective intuition. "Eiko woke up and even though she knew she was dying, she tried to stop her killer. She went down fighting," he said appreciatively. "Good for her, poor thing."

"So Eiko wasn't the killer after all?" Kento said. "This is nuts, man. First Hiro, now his wife. Why?"

"Because they knew," Rowen said determinedly. "They knew about th' inugami, an' the killer is tryin' t'cover his tracks. They're takin' out ev'ryone who knows about th' inugami, an' th' only one left is—"

No one bothered to say her name aloud; all three boys exchanged a panicked look.

"We gotta jam. _Now_!" Ryo said, and Rowen followed him out into the corridor at a dead sprint. No need to be quiet now.

But even in their haste, Kento spared a precious few seconds to kneel by the body of Eiko Imamura, uncaring of the mess. Carefully, gently, he tucked a lock of bloody hair behind her ear and closed her eyelids. "You did all you could," he told the dead woman. "Let us make it right. And we will, too."

Then the Warrior of Hardrock was dashing after his friends, leaving only a bloody smudge on the tiled floor to mark the passing of his boots.

* * *

"Where _are_ they?" Cye hissed, glancing out the window for the fortieth time. Turning back to Sage, he asked, "How can you sit there and read at a time like this?"

"I'm not reading, I'm researching," Sage said calmly, turning a page in the book he held, the text from Hiro's satchel. He had read part of it with Mia that morning—was it only that morning?—and she'd pointed out the inugami in one of the chapters that claimed to focus on divination and the summoning of spirits. "None of this is adding up, and I'm tired of being in the dark."

Cye nodded, wandering towards the desk where Halo sat. "The key is here and we're missing it," he agreed in frustration, picking up Hiro's address book from the desk and leafing through it. "It's something we just can't see."

A puzzle piece turned and clicked into place in Sage's mind. "Not something we can't see," he said, pushing his chair back from the table, hands flat on the surface as he propelled himself to his feet. "Something we can't _read_. Give me that."

Cye handed the address book over, and Sage traded him for the textbook. Cye took it, opening it idly to a middle page, but kept his gaze on his friend. "Mia went over and over all this stuff, Sage," he pointed out. "She said none of it was helpful."

"Mia didn't know what we were looking for," Sage insisted, paging through the address book until he found the page he wanted. "It's this. It's been here the whole time and we haven't realized it."

Cye looked at the page Sage displayed to him. "Looks like a bunch of squiggles."

"It isn't," Sage said. "I'll bet you anything it isn't. We can't read it, and I have a hunch the killer can't read it either. Mia just thought it was weird, that it was Hiro's own special shorthand, but it's not—it's an _alphabet_," the Warrior of Halo pronounced, pointing to the open text he'd handed Cye, which was currently open to a chapter on runic divination. Several of the symbols in Hiro's address book could be matched to symbols in the text—_Thurisaz_, rune of change, which looked like a stem with a thorn sticking out of it, hence its translation "thorn"; _Jera_, the Year, a stylized yin-yang symbol that represented the harvest, _Dagaz_, the Dawn, the hourglass rune that symbolized awakening. "Now, when we have a problem with ancient legends and dead languages, who do we call?"

The light bulb went bing over Cye's head. "No wonder the demon is trying to steal the satchel and keeps chasing Mia! The killer must think Mia can read this stuff."

"Hiro went to Mia for help," Sage said. "She agreed to meet him here, and he gave her all of this stuff to hold on to, so when the killer confronted him looking for the books, he didn't have them on him. Maybe over the course of the encounter, Hiro realized what the killer had done, and he'd have known about the inugami from his research. So he had to go. But the killer didn't get the location of the book out of him. They probably thought it was still here in the library somewhere."

"That's why you and Mia ran into the demon," Cye figured. "It was sent to look for the book."

"Right."

"So that explains Hiro's murder, and the other indiscriminate killings are simply because they've lost control of the demon," Cye said. "But there's one thing that's been bothering me. If Eiko and Hiro worked together to summon a demon and now Eiko wants to put it back, why on Earth didn't she know where to find a spell that would do so? Wouldn't she and Hiro have figured that out well beforehand? He was a professor of mythology, and from what Mia says, he wasn't stupid."

Sage nodded. "Even if Eiko had already figured out that we were gunning for her tonight, we've been cooling our heels here too long. If Rowen's earlier theory is correct and the demon is after the satchel with Hiro's notes, it still should have shown up to play Easter Egg hunt by now. But it hasn't, and I don't like it."

Cye tossed the address book onto the desk and it remained open to the page with the runes. Sage's eyes flickered over it idly—then widened as a sequence of events and locations suddenly resolved themselves into an explanation that made sense. Grabbing for the textbook, his eyes scanned the page like nervous radar until they found the symbol he was looking for—a long, three-pronged stroke that matched a mark in Hiro's address book…and a memory in Sage's mind.

_Algiz_, the text said. _Protection. Shield. For defense against evil, the urge to protect oneself._

"We have to get back to Mia," Sage said sharply, slamming the book with a sound like a gunshot. "Now."

"What?" Cye said in alarm. "The others aren't—"

"Then we find them and get the hell out of here as fast as we can." Sage pushed the textbook back into the satchel and pointed to the address book with his other hand, gauntleted finger indenting the page over the rune _Algiz_, the rune he'd seen but yesterday and hadn't recognized until now. "I've seen this symbol before," he said, to cut off Cye's confused questions for the moment, "and I _will_ explain everything on the way but we have to go _now_."

As they pushed through the double doors, they practically ran into their equally alarmed brothers. A quick explanation from both parties put them all on the same page, and in less than two minutes they were sprinting towards the Jeep, covering ground like scared wolves, all too aware that time was running out.

* * *

Mia clicked off her blow-dryer and ran her fingers through her hair. She knew the boys might think it was silly that she'd bothered with it tonight, but the simple act of grooming had calmed her and made her feel more ready for their return. She had no idea what she was going to say to Eiko once she was here, but she'd be put together and organized, ready to confront the woman with solid evidence that they knew what she was up to. Then, together, maybe they could all figure out how to put an end to this nightmare once and for all.

It occurred to the redhead that she hadn't heard White Blaze lurking around ever since she'd gotten out of the shower. Carefully, slowly, Mia picked up Ryo's baseball bat and eased open the bathroom door. No one was in the hall. After a quick debate over giving away her position by speaking, she realized the shower water and the sound of the dryer would have done that anyway and decided to risk it. Opening the bathroom door all the way, she called out for the big cat. "White Blaze?"

No paws padding to greet her. No striped tail twitching hello.

A quick cold jolt of apprehension sent her moving quickly towards the living room, but the answer was waiting for her there—a swinging kitty-door, its hinges creaking and the rough wooden edge bumping against the floor. Ryo wasn't exactly a handyman, but he did his best; Mia smiled in relief. "He must have gone out to patrol the house like I said. I'll make sure there's water for him when he comes back." The phone rang, and she brightened; it was sure to be the boys telling her they were on their way back. Resting the bat against the door, she turned around and crossed the room to answer it.

Mia picked up the receiver eagerly, but the sound of her movement wasn't enough to mask a new creak from the door, and the greeting froze on her lips as she realized a second too late what was happening.

* * *

"Wait. _Wait_," Cye said as the Jeep turned onto the street leading away from the university. "There's a pay phone. Pull over."

"Pull _over_?" Sage asked incredulously, as if Cye had suggested they all get out and run circles around the car. "Cye, there's no _time_—"

"We don't know for sure," Cye said. "Let's call her. If we come crashing in and nothing's wrong, we'll scare the daylights out of her, and she's been frightened enough. Let's just make sure. Okay?"

"That's actually a good idea," Ryo said. "It will only take a minute."

Sage did not look happy. "Fine, but I'm sitting here with my foot on the accelerator ready to burn rubber if she doesn't answer the phone."

Despite the gravity of the situation, the others exchanged amused looks. It was Rowen who said it. "Sage, pull in ova there an' turn off th' engine so ya don't reflexively stomp on th' gas an' end up wrappin' us around a tree."

"I agree," the other three immediately chorused.

"Oh, so this is a democratic group of samurai, is it?" Sage grumbled, but in the interest of saving time, he did as Ryo said, pulling the Jeep up beside the phone. Luckily, the area was deserted so late at night, and no one noticed a car full of armored samurai stopping along the curb.

Cye got out along with Rowen. The Warrior of Torrent patted his subarmor, looking sheepish. "Anyone have a quarter?"

With an absolutely droll expression, Rowen smashed a gauntleted fist into the base of the phone. When he withdrew his hand from the hole, coins spilled out like molten silver.

"Frat boys did it," he said simply as Cye shook his head in disapproval. Torrent frowned, but selected a quarter.

"It's ringing," he reported, looking at the anxious faces of the others.

Cye waited, counting rings. "Three…four…five…come on, girl," he muttered nervously.

As the others looked on, he startled at something he'd heard on the other end of the line. Clutching the receiver, he asked, "Mia?"

Four Ronin tensed, waiting.

"Mia?" Cye repeated. "Are you there?" His eyes narrowed. "What was that noise?"

Sage's hands tightened on the steering wheel, the tortured leather creaking beneath his gauntlets.

Cye's eyes widened at another sound. "Mia, sweetie, answer me, tell me you're all right—"

Blinking, Cye suddenly took the phone from his ear. Looking confused, he reported, "There was a noise—a crash, like the phone dropped to the floor, then nothing. I heard breathing, but then…someone hung up."

Rowen was already shepherding Cye back into the Jeep as Sage shifted gears in as close to panic as the Warrior of Halo ever came.

* * *

The sharp whistle of a weapon through the air reached Mia's ears, and she had no way of knowing if it was blunt or blade, only that she had to duck. Dropping, she heard it slice the air above her. _Missed me, missed me, now you've got to—_

"_Kiss me_," Sage said in her memory as the return swing clipped the side of the head and pain screamed through her like bottle rockets.

Her senses scrambled as she fell, and her dizzy mind began confusing reality with memories of falling, falling down into the icy waterfall five years before, arms and legs immobile from the chill. She thought she heard Cale's mocking laugh above her but she knew it was wrong; Cale's laugh shouldn't have had such a feminine ring to it. Hitting the floor felt like an earthquake, but she refused to scream, she would not be defeated, and darkness covered the face of the mountain…

Blindness ate the world. _Ryo, was this what it was like when the sword sliced across your eyes?_

Falling. _I'm going away_, she thought languidly. _Falling. But so dark_.

Sage's voice in the back of her mind. "_Mia. We can't keep wasting time_."

Right before she passed out, Mia felt more productive than she had all week. She pieced together exactly what had happened, not only to her but to Hiro Imamura, and knew the person responsible; she could count every single wasted minute she'd ever let escape her; she saw Sage's ice-pale eyes hazy with passion in the low light of memory and even had time to realize what an idiot she'd been.

* * *

In stark contrast to earlier in the week, no one was yelling at Sage for driving like a drag racer as he gunned the Jeep out of the city at emergency speeds. Kento and Rowen were stationed at windows on either side, watching for patrol cars. "Just try not to get pulled over, man," Ryo said, but not unkindly.

"If they come after us, I'll outrun them," Sage answered, an edge of ferocity in his voice. "No one's catching me tonight."

"Be quick, but don't hurry," Cye advised, another concern coming to mind. "Getting into a car accident will not get us to her faster."

He received a curt nod from Sage in answer, but in three seconds the pedal was to the floor anyway.

Kento grinned weakly. "If you wreck us, I'll kill you, Halo."

Sage didn't smile back. "If we're too late to save her, I'll let you," he said grimly, shifting gears.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

**We're sorry, but your princess is in another castle:** Few things were more frustrating to a 1980s Nintendo player than getting to the end of every Bowser castle in _Super Mario Brothers_ only to meet a Mushroom Retainer who informed us that the princess was indeed in another castle. That was back when she was going by the name "Toadstool"—am I dating myself here or what? *smiles and winks*

All of the **demons** Mia looks up are well-catalogued in Japanese lore, and yes, I intentionally left out the thing about the tanuki testicles (Japanese ghost stories, in my opinion, range from the weird to the just plain ridiculous). Just be glad I didn't include the demon with the eyeball in its…well, you go ahead and look that one up if you dare. *snickers.*

**Sharping a shield:** I can't find any historical documents that corroborate the idea of "sharping" a shield in order to use its edge as a blade, but I've read about the technique in plenty of fantasy stories and think it's a salty way to turn the tide in a desperate battle. The first time I encountered it in fantasy, it was in fact a squirrel who had done so—Jacques's Borderer who was a force for good. Stars shine bright over your brave bones, Mr. Jacques! We miss you.

_**I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way**_**: **Like a true knight, Sage wouldn't say goodbye to Mia without pulling out all the stops—he quotes one of the saddest, sweetest poems ever written, Alfred Noyes' _The Highwayman._

**The Elder Futhark**_**:**_ I first became acquainted with the runic alphabet of the Elder Futhark nearly twenty years ago reading Lisa Jane Smith's _The Forbidden Game_. Smith only used a small section of the alphabet in her writings (including _Thurisaz_, the Thorn, and _Dagaz_, the Dawn), but there are many more runes that can be used for divination. _Algiz_ carries a primary meaning of "shield", protection of oneself or others, defense against evil. Lucky for Mia that Sage got bored in the library and felt like picking up a book!

**A special thank-you:** To the reviewer who signed in as "YFF", if you're still reading, you honor me with your attention and I couldn't be more flattered—I read "Chains Unleashed" and "Blood Moon Rising" years ago and found them delightful; it's stories like those that made me itch to put pen to paper myself!

**For you art lovers: http:/ nekosaiko. deviantart. com /art/:** Nekosaiko on DA is a hell of an artist, she is _super_ nice, and she does _beautiful _YST art which includes some heartstopping Seiji/Nasuti doujinshi. Her _Bleach_ stuff is just as gorgeous—anything she does is lovely. Go check her page out. She's outrageous!

**Next chapter**: So now both the Ronin and Mia know who's behind this bloodbath, but as my favorite soldiers say, knowing is only _half_ the battle. *smiles and winks.* Good thing the Ronin have weapons for the other half!


	7. Cry Havoc

**Author's Introduction:**

Surprise! Was no one expecting to see me again so soon? *smiles winningly* I admit it's a bit of a fun surprise for me, too.

I promised to try to update a little faster once we got closer to the end, and I can only hope I've done that promise honor with this next chapter, my favorite. As I mentioned last time, this part of the story, "Cry Havoc", while _not_ the end of the tale, was actually the first chapter I wrote when I began drafting this story in 2007. Naturally, it's been through a lot of changes between then and now, but the same basic elements that were there that summer are all still here. I apologize, I don't mean to go on—it's just that I couldn't even tell you what it means to me to finally see it here, and know that this story, which is so special to me, is almost told.

_Almost_. *smiles.* I still remember that day, that desk, that notebook in 2007. And now, here we are. As King would say, thanks to you, Constant Reader—always thanks to you.

* * *

**Cross My Heart, and Hope To Die**

_a Ronin Warriors fanfiction by Firestar9mm_

* * *

**Chapter Seven: Cry Havoc**

* * *

_Cry Havoc! And let slip the dogs of war._

(Shakespeare, _Julius Caesar_)

* * *

Mia woke up, which was a pleasant surprise all on its own. Slowly, she became aware of her arms and legs. Unfortunately, that was by realizing they were tied to the chair she was sitting in.

"It's about _time_," Kaori Satou said, walking leisurely around the chair and carelessly tossing aside her weapon—Ryo's baseball bat, which rattled to the floor and rolled into a corner of the room. "I thought maybe I'd hit you too hard."

"Why did you hit me at _all_?" Mia spat, despite the pain that lanced through her head as she replied. She remembered bringing the baseball bat into the shower for protection, for all the good it had done her. She resolved not to admit to the boys the embarrassing fact that she'd been taken down with her own weapon.

Kaori arched a thin brow, and Mia hated her briefly for looking so calm and put-together, even now. Her hair was tied behind her in a neat tail of darkness, no ridges or tangles in it; her jeans were pressed and her black sweater looked as soft as the leather boots she was wearing. Her voice was chocolate-smooth as she said, "Is there a better way to force you to help me?"

"Not by giving me _brain damage_," Mia snarled. "Although, I guess I should be happy your inugami didn't just tear me into dollrags."

Kaori's eyes deadened to the flat black of moonless midnight, and her face stilled as she said, "Please understand. I never meant for it to go this far. But I _need_ you, Mia. The inugami's getting stronger, and it's getting hungrier. If it comes here after me, it's not going to pass up a meal that's already been trussed up for it."

Instinctively, Mia struggled at her bonds, but Kaori knew her way around knots. They weren't budging. The ropes around her bare ankles were digging into her skin above her tennis shoes, and her thighs were beginning to ache from keeping them together beneath her denim skirt, even if modesty seemed ridiculous at a time like this. She hadn't had a chance to put her sweater on before she'd gotten blitzed, and her short-sleeved shirt didn't protect her arms from the ropes that were biting into them. She cursed herself for a fool and an idiot—she knew exactly how long Kaori had been in the cabin, and how she'd gotten in—the door, the "pet door" Ryo had carved into the cabin's own door was more than big enough for a person to squeeze through, especially a slim person like Kaori.

"Where's White Blaze?" Mia asked. "What have you done with him?"

"Who?" Kaori asked, looking genuinely puzzled. "Mia, I can hardly keep track of the cast of thousands you run around with."

Mia quieted. If Kaori truly didn't know there was a large Himalayan tiger prowling the grounds, so much the better. She hoped her furry friend wasn't hurt.

But if Kaori was right and the inugami was going to follow her here...

"I can save you," Kaori said, a note of eagerness creeping into her voice, as if she were reading her captive's mind. "I can stop it. All you have to do is tell me how to send the demon back to the spirit realm. Hiro must have told you _something_." Those dark dead eyes were glazed over with desperate hope.

"Why would he have told _me_ anything?" Mia asked, still rocking against the ropes in a futile effort to loosen them. "I barely knew him! _You're_ his research assistant, didn't he tell _you_ anything?" Her mind flashed back to the terrifying moment of clarity she'd experienced before passing out from pain and shock. "You went to Hiro's office to look for information, didn't you? _You_ answered the phone when I called. You pretended to be Eiko Imamura."

Kaori gave Mia a withering look, as though she were dealing with a slow learner at school. "Mia, _you_ assumed I was Eiko Imamura. I just didn't bother to correct you."

Mia was ready to call bullshit on that. "You disguised your voice and let me think Eiko had spent the day crying as she went through Hiro's things."

"Oh, that wasn't a lie," Kaori said idly. "She was going through Hiro's things when I got there, and she was crying pretty hard." The girl's lovely face stilled. "But she's not sad anymore."

Mia's throat constricted. Kaori didn't have to explain any further to get the message across—Eiko hadn't answered the phone when Mia had called. And Eiko wasn't sad anymore, because Eiko was dead. "How _could_ you?" she asked, remembering Eiko's limpid, tortured eyes as she spoke of the empty house that Hiro had made their home, the scrawled heart in Hiro's notebook as he wrote himself a reminder that he was meeting his beloved. "How could you hurt the Imamuras? They were good people. They were your friends. What did Hiro and Eiko ever do to you?"

Kaori's eyes blazed with frightening, instantaneous rage. "_She_ shouldn't have been so mean to me," she hissed. "She shouldn't have told me to go away—she should have just told me what I wanted to know. She kept saying she didn't know anything about how to send the demon away, but I know she _did_ and she wouldn't _tell_ me, just like I know _you_ do and _you_ won't tell me. You're—all_—so—__**mean**_**.**" She punctuated each word with a stamp of her foot, but instead of looking like a silly, petulant child, she looked downright scary and unstable. It felt like the ropes were constricting even tighter around Mia, and she willed herself not to let her imagination run away with her.

Trying to swallow her fear and ignore the feeling that she was staring her own death in the face, Mia asked the biggest question as gently as she could. "Kaori, _why_ are you doing this?"

Instead of answering, Kaori curled up on the floor, tucking her legs beneath her and staring into a middle distance. She was trembling slightly, and Mia saw a tear course down her cheek.

"It's not _fair_," the girl murmured. "It's just _not fair_."

The weirdness had just gone off the end of Mia's meter. _What I wouldn't give to be trading witty repartee with Cale right now_, she thought whimsically. Aloud, she said, "I'd try to comfort you if you hadn't hit me over the head and tied me up to be demon chow."

Kaori turned a tearstained face towards her captive. "It was _so_ bad at home," she whispered. "Every day, the yelling and the screaming. The name calling and all the bruises."

A puzzle piece fell into place in Mia's mind. _Her fiancé was an acquired taste_, Eiko Imamura had said. Which, Mia realized, was a nice way of saying that Eiko had suspected that Kaori had been getting abused, probably for years.

"Hiro…" Kaori smiled wanly, lost in memory. "He would tell me the most fantastic stories about the legends he studied. Princesses who made wishes and samurai knights who saved the day, and the goodbeasts who came to help them. Warriors and magic and heroes. It was so nice to…_dream_."

Mia relaxed a fraction. As long as Kaori could be induced to talk, she wouldn't be thinking about murder, and maybe she'd reveal something that could get them out of this mess. "When did the dream get bad?" she asked.

Fresh tears welled up in Kaori's eyes. "My fiancé found the necklace that Hiro gave me. He called me a slut. He said I couldn't work with Hiro anymore, and then he _hit_ me. He hit me again…and again…and _again_." Kaori's voice grew hard as she relived the night she'd decided she wasn't going to take it anymore.

A horrible possibility occurred to Mia. _Her fiancé was an acquired taste_. _**Was**__, not __**is**__._ They'd never identified the demon's first victim, a man who had been so terribly disfigured by the attack that he was unrecognizable, a man whom no one had reported missing.

"You made a wish," Mia told Kaori. "You asked a magic beast to help you with your problem."

Kaori smiled through her tears. "I got it out of Hiro's books," she said, as though she were telling a secret. "It was so easy. The ingredients were a little hard to find, but once I did I _knew _exactly how to call it. Oh, Mia, when you _feel_ it…when you feel magic…"

Mia remembered the weight of the Jewel of Life on her chest, the welcome heft of the Staff of the Ancients in her hand. She remembered her grandfather's voice telling her the poem she loved so, over and over again. Magic—Sage's arms around her, the steady hammer of his heartbeat. Ryo's impossibly kind eyes, Cye's sweet smile, Kento's fierce hug, Rowen's quick wit. Yes, she knew magic, knew it well.

Seeing the faces of her beloved Ronin in her mind, Mia felt her own eyes fill with warmth. _Not like this_, she thought helplessly. _Not now. There's so much left to __**do**__. Someone has to look after White Blaze while Ryo's in school, and there's so many memories left to make with my boys. I want to have them over for dinner parties and snowball fights and swimming in the lake. I want to go to their graduations, their birthday parties, their weddings. And Sage…oh, Sage, I hate myself for being such a coward. You were right—we shouldn't have wasted so much time..._

Blinking back hot tears, Mia resolved that if she was going to die tonight, she was going to do it with honor and an attitude. She was going to make her boys proud of her, and she was going to make Kaori feel like she was in the worst crime novel ever written.

"You called up a demon," she said flatly. "You stole the Imamuras' dog and you killed it to create an inugami, a beast that would exact your vengeance for you."

"I asked for _help_," Kaori protested hotly, anger sparking in her black-marble eyes. "_No one_ would help me. The police didn't do _anything_. Even Hiro just wanted to wait for things to get better, and they weren't ever _going_ to. I had to _stop_ it. Once and for all."

"But you weren't like the princesses in the legends," Mia said. "And the beast you called wasn't a good beast. It was a really, really bad one."

Mia wished Rowen were here to help her put all their theories into context. It all seemed so elementary now. Only one person could have shaped a spell like the one that had created the demon's earthly dress—called up a monster who used every single weapon it had in its arsenal, desperate to scratch and kill; a monster who could change size, looking small and harmless one minute and large and deadly the next. Kaori's emotion had bled into her spell, calling forth a demon that fit her perfectly, and she'd used it as a remote-control murder weapon. She had killed the Imamuras to cover up the fact that she'd killed her fiance, and Mia and the Ronin were about to become collateral damage.

"I didn't mean to," Kaori murmured.

Mia treated her opponent to a laugh like broken glass. "You didn't mean to! How could you think your rage and hatred could call forth anything but a filthy, vile monster!" Seeing Kaori flinch, Mia pressed on. "And once your grisly revenge was over, you didn't know how to get rid of it, did you?"

"It wouldn't _stop_," Kaori cried, rising to her feet. "It just wanted more and more. It was always so _hungry_ and it wouldn't _stop_."

Pieces of the truth were turning and fitting in place in Mia's brain like a bizarre game of mental Tetris. Kaori must have told Hiro what she'd done right before he'd died. No wonder he'd looked so completely disheveled when he'd shown up on campus and asked Mia for more time to prepare. He'd been losing sleep over his horror at the truth about the woman he'd thought was his friend and the knowledge that his beloved research had helped her to accomplish her terrible aims. Poor bastard was lucky that he hadn't had to live with the guilt very long.

"You asked Hiro for help," Mia said, nodding. "It took you a while, but you finally admitted what you'd done."

"He _yelled_ at me," Kaori shrieked, her slender hands clenched into fists. "He'd never yelled at me before. He said I'd done a terrible thing. He wouldn't translate any other spells for me. I told him I only wanted to send the demon back, but he said I'd done enough damage already. He was going to call the police. I _had_ to…I just _had_ to…"

Remembering Hiro's pitiful body lying at the foot of the stairs, Mia settled back as far as the ropes would allow. "You pushed Hiro down the stairs."

"I didn't mean to kill him," Kaori said softly, a tear slipping down her cheek. "I was mad at him but he was my friend and I didn't mean to hurt him."

_She's crazy_, Mia realized, heart thudding sickly in her chest. She imagined Hiro at the landing, turning his back because he'd never thought his friend might hurt him; thought of Eiko sitting at her husband's desk, thinking she was safe in his favorite place, surrounded by the legends he loved so well. They'd been so trusting; they expected people to act nobly because they themselves were noble, and now they were dead.

_What a terrible waste_, Mia thought, not for the first time. _Kaori lied to them, the worst kind of lie—she said she was their friend._ _She fooled me too_—_she fooled everyone. I thought she was just a kicked puppy, but the bitch has teeth. She tricked her way in here, just like she tricked Hiro, just like she tricked Eiko, and now she's going to kill me too._.

"Even you wouldn't help me," Kaori accused, her voice smoothing out again despite the tears still wet on her face. "_You're_ a woman, I thought _you_ might understand, but I could tell you and that snob of a boyfriend of yours wouldn't take my side."

The insult to Sage made Mia bristle. Automatically, her tongue tensed to say _He's not my boyfriend_, but it seemed such a small thing to quibble over given the circumstances, and even in this ridiculous nightmare situation, it gave her an oddball sense of satisfaction that Kaori thought Sage was hers. Her chest tightened at the thought that she might never see him or the other boys again.

_Don't think about that_, she coached herself. _Don't think about that now. Keep her talking and work on those ropes. If it doesn't work, you're no worse off._

"And you were _such_ a tramp," Kaori continued snootily, "with all those boys around. I couldn't get to you till tonight."

Mia didn't like that "get to" part. They were back on the subject of killing her, and that wasn't good.

"You were with a different boy every _day_." Kaori's slim brows dipped over her dark eyes; her voice held the warm edge of jealousy. "They didn't leave you alone for one second, always fussing over you and taking you places. Who _are_ they, anyway? _What_ are they?"

Mia felt fierce. "They're the stuff that legends are made of. You won't find them in any books, but they're the greatest heroes who ever lived."

Kaori's smile was unsettling. "If that were true, they'd be here to save you from the demon."

Mia's heart knocked dully against her breastbone, but she refused to allow the fear into her voice. "Just you wait," she challenged. "They won't let me die."

* * *

Once they were out of the city, no one was worried about attracting police attention, and Sage soon had the pedal of the Jeep to the floor. He breathed a quick prayer of thanks that they'd taken Mia's Jeep and not Kento's CJ-6—the CJ couldn't go over fifty-five without the entire car feeling like it would shake apart, and every second was going to count tonight.

"Sage, are you _sure_?" Ryo asked for what felt like the tenth time as the Jeep rattled over the dirt roads leading to the cabin. "I'm not trying to sound like a jerk, I just want to be sure."

"I'm telling you it's the research assistant," Sage insisted. "She's wearing a rune around her neck that matches something in Hiro's notes. He gave it to her. But when Mia and I talked to her, she acted like she had no idea what was going on. She said the rune was supposed to symbolize good luck, but that's not true—it's a shield rune. If she was as involved with Hiro's research as everyone says she was, she'd know exactly what the rune is, which means she lied to Mia and me about what it meant." The Warrior of Halo slammed the side of his fist on the steering wheel in frustration. "I should have figured it out. There was something cagey about her—she kept trying to brush Mia off and wouldn't talk to us. Mia said that Hiro was obviously upset the week before he died, but the assistant told us he was fine. The rune around her neck is a spell of protection, and we've agreed the Imamuras are dead because they were perceived as a threat. If it turns out this woman was behind the whole thing and Hiro was trying to stop her, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised."

"What's her name?" Kento asked, something pricking at his memory—the nameplates on the doors in the library basement.

Sage gripped the steering wheel and cursed himself for being more wrapped up in his own hurt feelings the day before instead of paying attention to the woman Mia had been questioning at the funeral. "Ah…Kaori. Kaori something-or-other."

"If she was working down in that dungeon with all those books, right down the hall from Hiro's office, she has to know more than she was letting on," Kento said, suddenly realizing who "Satou, K." was. "I think Sage might be right. Why lie about the necklace unless she didn't want people asking questions? And how could she say she didn't know Hiro was upset all week if she'd worked so close to him? She's hiding something."

"That's what I thought, too," Sage said. "At the time, though, Eiko Imamura seemed like the better lead, and I admit I didn't pay much attention to Kaori."

"You can't prove any of this," Cye said reluctantly; he had a feeling his friends were right, but someone had to play devil's advocate.

"No," Sage admitted. "I can't, but I need you guys to trust me. I just know…because I know…because I _know_."

Rowen smiled slightly. "_Res ipsa loquitor,_" he agreed, his accent fading behind his perfect pronunciation of the Latin, then resurfacing as he continued, "I heah ya, man. I gotta feelin' we're on th' right track."

"It's about friggin' _time_ we're on the right track," Ryo said fiercely. "Can't you go any faster, Sage?"

"Don't you think I'm _trying_?" Sage said, navigating around a ditch. "Now, if we were in _my_ car—"

The Warrior of Halo never got to finish the sentence—a dark shape leaped into the road, landing mere feet from the CJ and directly in its path, two flickers of red visible like brake lights from hell. Trying to ignore the surprised shouts of his friends, Sage cut the wheel sharply to the left, and the Jeep lurched nauseatingly, but the animal wasn't about to be faked out. It hunkered down and swiped a massive claw at the Jeep, slicing through the right front tire and part of the grill. The vehicle, burdened with the weight of too many passengers, pitched to the side and overbalanced for one long second before gravity carried it off the road and down into the brush. Clad only in subarmor, the Ronin wore no helmets, a mistake Sage was hoping they'd live to regret. He was dimly aware that his friends were yelling his name, but a sudden strike of his head against the steering wheel took precedence until darkness blotted out all thought.

* * *

As she watched tensely, Kaori suddenly stopped her aimless pacing of the room. Stilling, she turned her head towards the window, but Mia was horrified to see that the flat black of her eyes had spread, blotting the whites out entirely.

Before she could begin to really panic, Kaori sucked in a breath, resuming her frenetic half-circling of Mia's chair. "Someone's coming," she said. "There's a car approaching out on the road." She made a sharp gesture with one hand, two fingers extended; the classic signal for _go_, _quickly_. It was so focused that Mia was tempted to look behind her to see who the gesture was intended for, but she knew the room was empty.

"Right now?" Mia asked, searching the other woman's eyes for some kind of clue, but the dark pools had shrunk again, leaving only the usual insanity in Kaori's gaze. Mia half-wondered if she'd imagined what she'd just seen, but she knew better than that. "How do you know that?"

Kaori looked disappointed. "You're not as smart as I thought, Mia. It's _my_ inugami. It serves me. It reports to me."

"The third eye," Mia realized. "The eye in its forehead, a window between the world and its brain. You see what it sees and you know what it knows. That's how it always showed up where we were. You've been spying on us the entire time."

"Correct." Kaori's expression shifted back to slightly more impressed, which was good—boring or disappointing her would be tantamount to a death sentence. "That big guy, he laughed at us, but we stopped him laughing when we sent you and the other boy sailing out of the water. You were all so frightened." She smiled, like a little girl who'd played a trick and gotten away with it.

Mia gritted her teeth at the memory of Cye's hand in hers, spasming, clutching tight with pain and fear. "I knew it. I knew you were telling the demon what to do. Only a human could be so malicious. The inugami is a killer by nature, but you—you're _evil_."

"_Evil_?" Kaori's face twisted in a sudden mask of rage. "I'm the _victim_ here."

"I really just have trouble believing that when _I'm_ the one tied to the chair," Mia sighed.

"You can solve that problem at any time," Kaori said. "Mia, I promise I would let you go free if only you would tell me how to subdue the demon."

Rolling ocean-colored eyes at her captor, Mia snorted. "I don't _know_ how to get rid of it. The legend _I_ read said that the inugami haunted the woman who called it _for_. _Ev_. _Er_," she enunciated, so that there might be no mistake. "None of the books had anything about getting _rid_ of the damn thing, so short of _killing_ it, I'm all out of ideas."

"Somehow, I don't believe you," Kaori said silkily.

"And somehow, I don't care," Mia shot back. She was beginning to hope the legends about inugami turning on their masters was true, because there was no question Kaori deserved a short touch of the demon.

Kaori settled back on her heels, tapping a finger whimsically against her lips with one hand and cupping her bent elbow with the other. "You really _don't_ know, do you?"

"If I'm lying I'm dying," Mia said without thinking, then immediately regretted the words.

Kaori's eyes were solemn dark. "I'm afraid so," she said. "It's getting closer."

* * *

Sage dreamt of snow falling.

_The snow fell like chips of bone around him, and before him the body of Hiro Imamura lay trapped in a massive spiderweb, head flopping over to side, one sentence hissing from its ruined mouth: "Only the girl's left to save."_

_Somewhere in the darkness the memory-voice of the warlord Cale echoed the statement. "Halo! Only the girl's left to save!"_

_Whirling, Sage turned to search, trying to escape the sharp swirling snow, which stung his cheek and bit at his exposed skin, but there were only heavy shadows and gale winds and the voice taunting him._

"_Halo! Her blood will spill! Show yourself or she dies!"_

_Sage's teeth grit. "I won't let her! I won't let her die."_

_He could hear the roar of the waterfall in the dark, and he turned eagerly towards the sound, seeing her shining behind the curtain of water, but before he could reach her, the water rippled and heaved and the inugami breached its depths, acid foaming from its mouth to mingle with the spray of the falls._

_His sword was made of bones and when he swung it they crumbled in the jaws of the beast. Its spittle burned his hands, ate his armor away, scorched everything it touched even as the ice climbed the waterfall and trapped her inside. _

_Before he could roar his rage, the Ancient appeared before him, shining with holy light. "Sage of Halo, why do you sleep? Your brothers await your aid. Your warriormaid has braved peril for you. Rise and repay their faith. Do not let them down."_

_And with that, the monk gave Halo a sharp rap on the knuckles with his staff_.

Sage came awake with a start, looking down at his smarting hand—the rearview mirror of Mia's Jeep had come off the windshield and struck him. He reached to brush the snow from his hair and realized it wasn't snow, but broken glass that stung his face. Indeed, the spiderweb from his dream stretched out before his eyes across the cracked windshield, somehow menacing even in its emptiness. There was something wrong with the landscape—the trees were all on their sides, and the stars were practically beneath him.

As Sage's dizzy brain tried to piece together the nightmare elements, a groan to his left solved the puzzle for him.

_Idiot! There was an accident!_

Kento stirred, strings of dark blood drying on his temple. "Heyyyy, baby…wanna know why they call me Hardrock?"

"Kento," Sage said, voice rusty. "Wake up, Ken."

"Oh, terrific," Rowen said from the backseat. "Now I'm upside down."

Kento blinked, glanced around, and then treated Sage to a smile, albeit a weak one. "Dude, you drive like a spaz!"

"Kento, I am going to kill you over and over again," Sage rumbled, trying to mask his relief that his friends were alive and simultaneously trying not to panic about the friend they were trying to rescue. How long had they been unconscious? Was it already too late?

"My leg hurts," Cye complained softly, shifting his weight in the backseat. "Are we there yet?"

"Did something happen?" Ryo asked, rubbing a swollen eye. "Sage?"

Sage blinked, trying to force the night in front of him to resolve itself into manageable shapes. "There was…there was something in the road. Wasn't there?"

"I saw the eyes," Cye wheezed, leaning over and bracing his hands on his knees. "It was the demon."

"No way," Kento barked. "It was _big_. Way too big to be the demon."

"I saw the eyes, too," Ryo said. "Cye's right."

"Mia said maybe it could change size," Rowen agreed. "Ya didn't see th' size o' that paw, Kento. It wuz th' demon, all right."

"We just don't know enough about this thing," Cye sighed. "If we had more time."

"We are _out_ of time," Sage growled, shifting his weight and searching for the window lever. "Mia needs us. _Now_."

"We can't stay here," Cye agreed. "Can we get out through the windows?"

"Yeah. Be glad this ain't a Cadillac," Rowen laughed. "Sage an' Kento c'n roll th' front ones down an' get out."

"Back windshield's broken," Ryo reported. "I'm going out that way."

After a few desperate minutes, the five Ronin trench-crawled their way out of the mangled Jeep. "Does Mia's insurance cover acts of demon?" Cye chuckled as they circled around to assess the damage. The right front tire was shredded beyond repair and the grill was punctured in several places. Bits and pieces of the chassis were visible in a crooked path leading back up to the road, and the boys followed the trail of automotive breadcrumbs back to regain their original position on the road.

"Whatta we do now?" Rowen asked. "We don't even know where th' thing is."

Ryo glanced out over the woods. "We advance," he decided. "Form a skirmish line. Fifty or sixty feet or so. That way it can't get past without us engaging it."

"Are you _crazy_?" Cye asked. "We're not penning this thing in. It'll run right over us!"

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Kento purred. "I'm so ready for this thing."

"I'm going through," Sage agreed darkly. "There's no other way."

Cye turned to Rowen, who shrugged. "I wish we could come up wit' somethin' betta, but Sage is right. We're outta time. Whateva we do, we gotta do it now."

"You know, sometimes I really hate hanging out with you guys," Cye said, but he chuckled and flipped his armor orb from finger to finger like sleight-of-hand, just as ready as the rest of them. "Let's do this."

"Right." Ryo nodded, hand steady on his own orb. "_Armor of Wildfire_!..."

* * *

Deep in the woods, a four-footed creature was snarling with rage, paws tearing the dirt as he galloped through the trees towards a light in the distance. His prey had eluded him, but he wouldn't be as easy to fool a second time, and once he got his claws in it, he'd make sure it wouldn't get up to make mischief again. These were _his_ woods; this was _his_ night, and he ruled here. The prey was furtive, sneaky, like a weasel, slipping in and out of places it didn't belong like an oily shadow, and it infuriated him.

He'd stop it, he vowed, baring canines and stepping one paw into the clearing where the light shone like a torch in the dark. It had tricked him once—but not again.

Now it was _his_ turn to play a trick.

* * *

When five Ronin were fully armored, weapons drawn, there was nothing left to do but spread out and cover the ground between the road and the cabin.

"Whatever happened to the no-splitting-up rule?" Kento asked.

"It's not smart to stay all in one place and get stomped," Cye pointed out. "Mia needs our help, and whether one or five get to her, _someone_ has to get to her. What good would we do her if we all get annihilated in one shot?"

A chittering sound from behind them caused Kento to tense mid-stride. "What was that?"

"Just some woodland critter," Ryo said, beckoning to his friend. "Come on, Ken."

But the otherworldly sound struck a nerve in the Warrior of Hardrock, made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. "Dude. I know that noise."

"It's a katydid or somethin'," Rowen said, smiling. "It's creepy. though, I'll give ya that. Don't they just sound like they're laughin'?"

_Laughing_...

The noise sounded again, louder this time. Kento turned abruptly, inching back towards the place where the Jeep had gone off the road. "Don't move," he said out of the corner of his mouth, spine freezing into a column of icy wariness. "Nobody move."

The other four ignored the order, but only moved as far as to look in the direction he was moving, and as their gazes settled on the twisted wreck of the Jeep, something small scampered over the warped metal and came to a stop on the dented rear fender, red eyes glowing maliciously in the dark. One tail flicked to curl around its flank. Then another. A third red light blazed into bright, horrific light above its eyes.

"It can't be," Ryo began.

"It is." Kento hefted his naginata.

"It can't be!" Ryo insisted, raising his katana and pivoting his feet in preparation for a frontal assault. In a bold voice, he issued his challenge to the tiny animal. "Sure you want to stay that small, ugly? This'll be no contest!"

The beast answered with that maddening chittery sound, and Rowen was right—It sounded very much like laughter. Scornful laughter.

"_Wait_," Cye said, hauling on Wildfire's arm. "It's a trap. It wants to _hold_ us here—"

Sage glanced reflexively towards the dark woods. "He's right. It pins us here and she _dies_, Ryo—what's your move?"

Ryo grit his teeth. "Anyone _else_ wanna be leader?" he joked, his voice thin. "Sorry, Sage. We've got a chance to stop it, right here, right now. Go on ahead, I got this."

"All o'ya go," Rowen agreed. "I'll stick wit Ryo."

"Why did we ever make that no-splitting-up rule?" Cye chuckled as he turned to follow Kento and Sage.

"We'll catch you up," Ryo called after his friends.

"Fine, but _hurry_," Cye answered. "I have a feeling the worst is still out there!"

* * *

"You should have gone with them," Ryo told Rowen, katana spread wide at his sides, ready to be swung up as soon as the monster charged.

Strata only grinned. "Ya need me, Wildfire. Got an idea, an' we'll catch th' guys up in a flash." Swiftly, the blue-haired Ronin nocked an arrow to his bow, feet spread to anchor him just behind where Ryo stood. "Speakin' o'flashes...gotta light?"

Ryo glanced back to the tiny monster sitting atop the Jeep. As Rowen drew his bow, it hunkered down, a horrible hissing sound coming from jaws that were foaming with spittle, and even from the distance Ryo could see the noxious fluid carving smoking rivulets into the metal.

Suddenly realizing what Rowen intended to do, he nodded at his friend. "Good thinking, man. Hold her steady and then say when!" Swinging his swords up just beyond where the arrowhead strained on the bowstring, the Warrior of Wildfire concentrated until a point of superheated light sparked where the points of his katana touched. Across the impromptu battlefield, the inugami seemed to have also caught on to the plan; it huddled around the remains of the Jeep's fender, fur puffing up in a way that was almost feline rather than canine. Ryo chanced a quick look at it and realized it wasn't just a puffing of fur; Mia had been right. It was getting _bigger_ in preparation to take the hit.

"Hope this works," Rowen muttered, drawing his bow back a fraction of an inch more as the ball of light caged at the tip of Ryo's katana flared and burst into crackling flame. "Okay, light me!"

Just as Strata released the arrow, Ryo drew his swords apart, releasing the energy he'd been building between them, and the result was that a flaming arrow arced across the road like a comet, leaving trailing sparks in its wake. At the last second, the monster leapt from its perch with a squeal, scampering out of the line of fire, and the arrow struck the Jeep with all the force of the magic that had created it, knocking the two-tone truck off-balance and spitting a jet of flame into the air.

As the Ronin recovered from their combined effort, the now-pony-sized inugami stepped one widening paw onto the road, the flaming wreckage behind it painting it in hellish shades of orange and yellow.

Ryo raised his katana, ready to charge, but Rowen caught something both Wildfire and the demon had missed—the sudden, sharp scent of gasoline from the Jeep they'd set alight.

"_Hit th' dirt_!" Strata bellowed as he hauled his leader down off the road into the woods. Yanking the other boy past tree after tree, Rowen ran full tilt until he felt they'd gotten a safe enough distance from the road and shoved Ryo down into a hollow beneath a cedar, jumping in after him. Neither had time or inclination to look back and see if the inugami had followed them, and a second later the sound of the Jeep exploding rocked the forest.

* * *

When they heard the explosion, all three of the other Ronin halted their advance, whirling to see what the hell had happened. The nightmarish glow beyond the trees told the story, and this time there were no arguments as Cye pointed to himself with a jerky movement of his thumb. Clapping Sage on the back with his free hand, he said, "_Go_!" and that was the extent of the debate.

It didn't take Torrent long to double back to the road once more, and sure enough, the blackened shell of Mia's Jeep was visible in the center of a giant ball of fire on the side of the road. Cye knew he couldn't allow the fire to spread; they had enough to worry about without the threat of flames, smoke and falling trees to contend with.

The Warrior of Torrent allowed himself a grim smile. One more problem, he decided, and they'd be out of solutions.

Here, at least, though, there was something he could do. Spinning his trident gracefully, the Warrior of Torrent concentrated, feeling as though water were filling all his senses, cooling him even as he stood so close to the intense heat of the burning vehicle. His mind was on balance—on how water rushed to level, how all things could be equal when perfect balance was achieved. As Mia had excitedly explained, the force of will, the knowledge in his hands and the magic that ran through him created all that he needed to douse the flames—the massive cooling energy of Torrent's water, the force of his desire to right what was wrong with this night.

When the Jeep was now a dripping, twisted hunk of metal sitting in a smoking crater at the side of the road, Cye lowered his trident and felt more useful than he'd felt all week. Tilting his face to the stars, he breathed in deeply, and remembered again that for better or worse, he _was_ Torrent, would always be Torrent—destined to straddle the line between both worlds, the land and the sea, the magic and the mundane, the sleeping and waking, because balance was necessary. Balance was vital, and it was a lesson he needed to learn as well as teach.

Smiling exhaustedly, he turned towards the woods, feeling better than he'd felt in a long time, despite the still-looming threat of the inugami.

Jogging to catch up with his fellow Ronin, an unnerving thought broke his calm for a tenth of a second—where _was_ the inugami, anyway?

* * *

With little to no noise pollution in the land surrounding the cabin, sound traveled far and fast. They heard the explosion in the distance, like the threat of thunder. Mia was pleased to see that Kaori jumped; it was nice to know she didn't know _everything_ that was going on.

"What was that?" Kaori said, almost to herself, glancing towards the window.

"Strike three, other team gets a chance to steal," Mia said, a faint flicker of hope stirring in her heart. But even if it _was_ the guys—what had that sound really been? Were they all right?

"I'll take a look," Kaori murmured. "Sit tight," she added cruelly, smiling at Mia, and then the door shut.

Biting her tongue on a remark about "stupid bitches", Mia set back to work on trying to loosen her bonds. _Heaven helps those who help themselves,_ she reminded herself. She couldn't just sit here and depend on the guys to ride to the rescue. For all she knew, they needed _her_ help.

Kaori hadn't been screwing around when she'd tied the ropes. She'd anchored each of Mia's hands to the chair's slat separately, then tied her wrists together. Mia shifted her shoulders, trying to stretch the ropes so that she could slide her fingers through, but it seemed impossible and she was running out of time—

And then something licked her hand.

Mia's heart seized, nerves standing on end with fear of the demon, but after a second she recognized the familiar kiss—she'd been living with it for months, had felt that kiss on her face and hands when she'd placed bowls of water on the floor or kept company on long evening walks. A scratch of the ears and an affectionate ruffle of fur would earn her that kiss goodnight.

Flexing her hand, she felt prickly whiskers, soft muzzle, cold wet nose. She knew this face, and it was all she could do to stop herself from sobbing in relief. _White Blaze_!

The broad tongue lapped across her palm once, reassuringly, and then the scratchy whiskers tickled her wrist and she could feel hot breath, the sharp nip of teeth as he tried to gnaw through her bonds. After what seemed like a small eternity, the ropes on one hand frayed a bit, one strand and then another unraveling. Carefully, painfully, the rope scraping her wrist, Mia was able to work one hand free. "Good, White Blaze," she encouraged. "You're doing great!"

Even as she celebrated, footsteps outside cut her victory short; Kaori was on her way back.

"Go," she hissed to White Blaze, hoping the tiger understood. "We're only going to get one shot at this. Let's wait for a good one. You did great."

A press of a nose to her arm, then he was gone as silently as he'd come. Literally a second later, Kaori returned. "If that's really your friends out there, they're in trouble. Something is on fire at the edge of the wood."

_Fire_, Mia thought. _Ryo_?

"Like any big predator, the inugami is attracted to heat and movement," Kaori continued. "It'll zero in on them like a homing pigeon. On the bright side, _you_ get to live a little while longer."'

Mia steeled herself. She had one free hand and the element of surprise and it wasn't going to get any better than that. It wasn't much, but anything was better than just sitting there waiting to die. She had to get out of here and get to the guys—so she was going to have to say something that would make Kaori want to take her head off.

"You know, Eiko said such nice things about you," Mia said. "She said you were sweet and that she felt sorry for you, that you were taking Hiro's death almost as hard as she was. Hiro took you into his confidence. He _trusted_ you with his research, the thing he loved so much. And look at you now, Kaori, just look. You're not the sweet girl Eiko Imamura felt sorry for. You're not the noble partner Hiro thought he could trust. You _never_ were." Mia stared coldly at her adversary, brows meeting over her hurricane eyes; her voice dripped acid as she fired her volley. "It's a good thing you _killed_ them before they found out what you _really_ are."

Kaori reared back as if she'd been stung, eyes showing white all around. Then she _screamed_, a sound of pure rage and pain, and threw herself at the chair. Mia barely had enough time to bring her free hand up between them before her enemy was on her. Luckily, Kaori fought like a girl, all nails and open-handed slaps. Mia felt a scratch sting her cheek, and then she was able to get her hand around Kaori's slender neck. She found the hollow of the other girl's throat with her thumb and pressed, wrapping her fingers around in as good of a stranglehold as she could get. Kaori gasped and set her nails into Mia's forearm, shredding the skin until she drew blood. The pain surprised Mia into letting go, and Kaori's palm connected solidly with the side of her face. Stars blinked against the backs of Mia's eyelids for a second.

Kaori backed off, breathing hard. "Clever little witch," she murmured, wiping at her mouth with the back of her hand. "Very tricky, Mia. Your boyfriend was right. You _are_ smart." Drawing herself up to her usual stateliness, she smiled. "Too little, too late, though."

Mia felt herself start to panic. She only had one free hand, and even though Kaori was no fighter, she had the advantage of full mobility. She'd outlast Mia.

_What would Ryo do?_ Mia thought wildly.

And suddenly, she knew exactly what Ryo would do, but she'd have to let Kaori get close. Thinking quickly, she spat blood at the other girl. "You fight like a wimp," she hissed. "You're an embarrassment to women. You give girls a bad name! No wonder you had to get a _demon_ to do all the fighting for you!"

It worked. Kaori's eyes caught fire and she advanced again, a snarl bubbling from her thin lips. "That's what you think, princess. The demon likes its food surprised and running…" Here the mad spellslinger smiled wickedly. "…but it _loves_ a meal that's _tied up and bleeding_!"

Like a magician producing a rabbit from nowhere, Kaori brought something around from behind her back—one of the kitchen knives from the rack on the countertop. It was nothing fancy, a simple black handle with a steel blade, but Mia had become very familiar with those knives this week; she knew how sharp it was. Now Kaori pressed the flat of the blade against her captive's cheek. "Human anatomy classes are so interesting," she said. "Can you believe that you can _look up_ how to cut someone's organs out? Where the major arteries are? It's like a _road map_."

Mia shuddered involuntarily. _Come on, you bitch, a little closer. Just a little closer. Stay calm, Mia. Let her come to you._

Kaori's eyes lit up as if someone had touched a match to them, and Mia knew that her diseased brain had come up with something truly horrible.

"I know," she purred. "This will be just perfect." And she raised the blade again.

Panic sparked across Mia's synapses, and she forced herself to think of anything but her impending death. _Torch of Spirit, sought through five, drinking strength from immortal fire…_

"I could do your wrist, but that'd be boring." Kaori waggled the knife towards Mia's free hand. "And you'd probably pass out or something. No fun."

_Darkest prison sheds the light_, Mia thought, eyes locked on the gleaming blade.

"I could do your ankle, or your thigh, but you'd probably die from that, and then what's the point?" Kaori took a playful swipe towards Mia's feet, and giggled as Mia flinched uncontrollably. "So I'll give it a real treat."

_Churning beneath a swirl of salt_, Mia thought wildly, fighting not to scream as Kaori circled closer, like a shark. _Burning within a throne of rock, floating amongst the eyes of the ages…_

"Unmoored in the stream of the sky," she whispered aloud as Kaori pressed the blade against her heart.

Kaori smiled. "It's always the same," she said. "Even the bravest of them eventually break down. They beg. They scream. They cry."

Mia was horrified as she saw all the deaths Kaori had witnessed—or caused—flicker across the other girl's face.

"Or they whisper, like you," Kaori continued. "And what does that mean, Mia Koji? That you went to your death whispering?"

As always, thinking of the poem that had brought her boys to her gave Mia courage. "You are closer to death than I."

"We'll see," Kaori sang. "When _it_ comes."

The blade flashed out like a bad dream. Desperately, Mia twisted as far as the loosened ropes would allow, tilting the chair as much as she could, but it wasn't enough and the knife bit at her blouse, tearing fabric and sliding sharply down her side, opening the skin from rib cage to hip.

The wound felt cold for a split second before it was warmed by the spill of blood, and the entire room swung like a pendulum. Mia blinked to straighten it. Kaori danced backwards, grinning proudly.

Still shocked that the girl hadn't killed her, Mia raised her free hand to her side and brought it back wet with blood. "You _suck_ at this," she said in mild disbelief.

But Kaori only looked prouder. "It can smell your blood, you know," she said softly. "It'll follow that scent anywhere. And when it comes, it'll come for your heart. This knife will feel like nothing compared to its teeth when it bites, and you'll _beg_ it to take your heart and just make everything stop. Now…" Kaori's dark eyes sparkled with delight at her own cleverness. "…still want to tell me you don't know how to stop it?"

"Cross my heart," Mia promised, fighting a wave of sudden lightheadedness to meet her adversary's gaze with a steely glare of her own. "I hope _you_ die."

Kaori blinked, head tilting as she considered the redhead. "I can't tell if you're just stupid, or incredibly..._brave_." And then she leaned in very close, as if she wanted to kiss her captive, and through the haze of pain and fear Mia saw her chance. Drawing her head back, she used all the leverage she could muster to smash her skull against Kaori's.

She'd seen Ryo pull this move before, on Dynasty soldiers, dark warlords, soccer balls, but she had never imagined it would _hurt_ so much to headbutt something. Still, it sounded like Kaori was hurt even worse—she gave a little gasping scream and fell ungracefully to the floor, sitting in her own surprise. When she looked up, Mia saw that her top lip was swollen from smashing against her teeth. Blood dripped from her nose to mingle with the blood that was seeping from her mouth.

"You _bitch_," Kaori screamed. "I'll take your heart _myself_!" Gripping the knife, she screamed and raised her arms over her head.

Leaving her completely open to an attack from the side—and White Blaze was happy to oblige. With a snarl, he pounced, bringing his colossal weight down on the mad spellcaster. The knife flew from Kaori's hand and spun away, and a heavy, dull _thud_ announced her head meeting the hardwood floor. She twitched once, groaned, and moved no more.

The only sound was Mia's ragged breathing as she stared at her fallen foe.

White Blaze came bounding back with the knife in his teeth. Pressing it into Mia's free hand, he butted his head against her knee reassuringly.

"You did it!" Mia cheered, finally letting the tears spill from her eyes as she sliced through the bonds around her other hand and her ankles. Before even rubbing life back into the abused limbs, she threw herself on the tiger, hugging tight, petting frantically, the knife fallen forgotten from her fingers. "You were wonderful. You're my hero, White Blaze."

The laugh-growl sounded in her ears, and the tiger craned his neck, tongue lapping at her face.

"I love you too," Mia promised breathlessly. "I love you, too."

Girl and animal glanced at the fallen Kaori. Mia noticed the barely perceptible rise and fall of her chest. "She's not dead," Mia whispered, as if speaking too loudly would wake Kaori up. Quickly, she grabbed the bloody knife and raised it high, ready to spit Kaori through the chest like a butterfly mounted with a pin.

_She was going to kill you_, a fierce voice in her brain hissed. _She laughed when she thought your friends were hurt. She killed the Imamuras. She wants you dead, wants all of you dead. She won't stop. Do the world a favor and spike the bitch. If __**anyone**__ deserved it!..._

Letting her hands drop to her sides, Mia let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. "I can't," she panted. "I can't."

White Blaze, who had waited patiently for the outcome he'd known would happen, pushed his head against Mia's thigh to show his support. His friend was not a killer; defending herself and the Ronin was one thing, but she was not the sort to perform a coup de grace on someone who was unconscious and helpless.

Mia jammed the bloody knife through her belt, scrubbing at her face with her hands. White Blaze nuzzled against her shoulder, reminding her that they shouldn't stay here. This place was no good.

"I want the guys," she said thinly, looking into the tiger's big brown eyes. "Can you help me find them?"

White Blaze's muzzle stretched into that strange, serene smile, and he pushed his broad shoulder against her side, assisting her to her feet.

"Let's go," Mia said softly, retrieving her sweater and pushing her arms through the sleeves, trying to ignore the way the room rocked like a ship at sea. The dizziness followed her out into the night.

* * *

Ryo was cursing himself for twenty different kinds of an idiot. Some leader. They'd been getting their asses kicked and their names taken by this thing the whole time, and he couldn't seem to do anything right. It had been folly to pool all of their resources into one shoestring plan, and he'd been a moron to leave Mia alone without posting even one sentry. Now they'd been blindsided and they were scattered in terrain that was unfamiliar to most of them. The demon could hunt them down and pick them off one by one with less effort than it would take to crush the grass beneath its paws.

"Mia ain't gonna like what we did to 'er car," Rowen chuckled, tugging on a blue forelock. Then he sobered at the sight of his friend's worried face. "Sorry, Ryo, man. I won't joke no more."

"No," the Ronin of Wildfire said softly. The others were probably just as upset as he was, and if it was going to make Rowen feel better to make wisecracks, he wasn't about to take that away from his friend. "It's okay. You go ahead."

Rowen cast a glance around the wood, and then he practically lit up the glade with the grin that crossed his face. Elbowing Ryo in his armored side with a _clank_, he said, "'Ay, Ryo. What did one moth say t'tha otha moth?"

Ryo blinked. "I don't know. What?"

Rowen pointed at a dim glow, far into the trees. "Don't go towards th' light!"

Happily, Ryo punched the Ronin of Strata in the shoulder. "Trust you, Ro. Let's go."

* * *

Sage and Kento moved as quickly as they dared through the dark wood. Sage held his no-dachi in front of them, gathering the moonlight to it.

"Hey, Rudolph, wanna turn down your nose?" Kento said, squinting. "You're broadcasting our location to the entire hillside."

"Do you want to see where we're going, or would you rather collide with a tree?" Sage answered, looking around, face haloed in the light from his sword. "I have no idea how far we are from the cabin. Damn it."

Stepping closer to Sage, Kento put a hand on the Halo's sword arm, gently lowering it. "Trust me, man. Put the light out for a second."

Reluctantly, Sage sheathed his sword and darkness swelled over them. At the far edge of the night, a light gleamed warm and yellow.

"Bingo. Cabin window. That way," Kento said.

Sage had to smile at his friend in the dark, even if the other boy couldn't see it. "Good thinking."

"Yeah, well, every so often I do something brilliant," Kento laughed. "Let's go."

Something rumbled like distant thunder beyond them, and a shadow blocked the light they were traveling towards, draining the moonbeams away like a black hole. Three hellish lights replaced the warm light of the cabin window, burning red through the heavy night. The evil third eye flickered while the lower set of eyes scanned the woods like demonic radar.

"Shit," Kento whispered. "It's here. Do you think it sees us?"

"I don't know. But if we try to pass, it definitely will."

Kento chuckled softly, nervously. "So, Plan Guy, any ideas?"

"If we don't run for it now, we're probably dead," Sage answered flatly. The red eyes flared slightly brighter and the dim light glinted off sharp fangs; the beast had spotted them. "And, now it's too late." He unsheathed his no-dachi once more, no longer worried about giving away their position, the blade gleaming even in the stingy light. "If I go down tonight, I'm taking this thing with me."

But the Warrior of Hardrock had other plans. He stopped his friend's advance with one gauntleted arm. "Nah. Go on ahead, Sage. I got your back."

"_What_?" Sage exclaimed. "Have you lost your mind? No way I'm leaving you alone with that thing. It'll have your guts for garters."

"Mia is in danger," Kento pressed, remembering the embrace he'd accidentally interrupted earlier in the day—it seemed so long ago—knowing that the lovely redhead was Sage's Achilles heel, and that an appeal to her safety might work where nothing else would. "You have to save her, Sage. She's waiting for you. I'll hold things down here. 'Sides—" Hardrock flashed a bloodthirsty grin. "—I owe this fuzzball for tryin' to fricassee my friends!"

Sage's expression was torn, knowing that if he tried to chase two rabbits he'd likely end up with neither. "Kento, I can't let you do this."

"I'll be fine," Kento insisted. "You and Mia saved my bacon back on that mountain, pal, I'm just returning the favor. She _needs_ you, Sage," he added, jabbing that big red panic button one last time.

The look in Sage's eyes told Kento he'd won, but the Halo cast one last apprehensive glance towards the evil red eyes burning steadily between them and the cabin.

"Save her, Sage," Kento repeated.

The blond touched the hilt of his no-dachi to his forehead in a quick salute. "Luck, Kento. Try not to get killed."

As soon as the no-dachi's light had faded into the trees, Kento of Hardrock allowed his face to split in a grin. Death be damned. He was never happier than when he was riding into battle. His heart beat an excited tattoo as he raised his weapon and issued his challenge.

"_Hey, you oversized dust bunny! _Yeah, _you_! You might have had me dangling from a telephone pole last time, but we're on _solid ground _now, and that's _my_ turf! You're finished!"

The beast's eyes flared bloody red, and its muzzle opened in a roar, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth. Trees creaked and groaned as the massive demon forced its way through towards the lone Ronin.

Kento brandished his weapon to meet the charge. "_Haaaaaardroooooock! S'death on the wind! Iron Rock Crusherrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr_!"

* * *

Mia stumbled for what seemed like the thousandth time. White Blaze leaned against her side, keeping her upright. She'd been eager to put as much distance between herself and the cabin as possible, but somewhere along the way it had begun to feel like she was wading through wet cement. "M'okay," Mia assured the tiger even as she staggered. "M'just…a little tired…s'all."

The forest seemed to move around her, the branches of the trees scratching at her thin sweater like claws. Stopping briefly, Mia fumbled with the button that held it closed. Pushing the sleeves down her arms seemed to take ages. It fluttered to the ground like a wounded ghost. "S'better. I can walk better now…" she murmured, continuing on her way.

But she couldn't walk better. Every root and rock seemed hungry for her feet; the tall grass scratched at her legs, and every step pumped more blood from the wound on her side. Even with White Blaze's help she was having trouble keeping upright.

Eventually, she slid to rest against a cedar tree, despite the tiger's snuffling and pulling at the hem of her torn shirt. "Just need to…rest a moment…White Blaze."

The tiger nuzzled the girl fearfully as her eyes slid slowly closed.

* * *

Kento of Hardrock was a born warrior. He was very used to being the biggest kid on the block, and he'd won as many battles through the power of intimidation as he had being simply bigger and stronger than a lot of his opponents.

And like all true warriors, Hardrock was ready to fight to the bitter, bloody end, no matter how obvious it had become that he was simply outclassed.

In the beginning, the fight had tilted heavily in Kento's favor—he was faster than the now elephant-sized inugami, and quickly scored half a dozen superficial hits, the demon's mottled fur darkening in places with blood. It was when he attempted to hamstring the beast that the tide turned. The monster's tails suddenly lashed to frightening, eerily agile life, one wrapping around the naginata and ripping it from Kento's hands while the other knocked the warrior aside. Down came Hardrock, every bone in his body bouncing as his dizzy brain marveled at the solidity of the fur-encased bones that made up the beast's tail. A distant part of him realized it made sense—everything about the demon was bigger now, thicker, and the silly fluffballs that had waved like flags at him when the monster had been nothing more than an ugly squirrel perched on a electrical wire could now hit him with all the force of a quarterstaff.

Never one to go gentle into a good night, Kento rolled to his belly and attempted to trench-crawl towards his lost weapon, but the inugami, swinging its considerable bulk around, clamped its massive jaws onto Hardrock's gauntlet, lifting him off the ground with a jolt. Gritting his teeth, Kento's shoulder strained as gravity tried to pull him back down, but he refused to yell. If dying here gave Sage even one more minute to get to Mia, gave the other boys even one more year with her and with their families, he knew he'd have done them honor this night. He felt the jaws start to crush through his gauntlet, the corrosive saliva starting its burning kiss.

Something sparkled at the corner of his vision, and there was a swishing hiss as the light whistled dangerously close before the beast's eye exploded in a gout of blood and thicker things. Bellowing, it released Kento, and he tumbled to the ground. Scuttling out of range as fast as he could, he saw what had saved him—the middle prong of a trident was sticking out of the demon's ruined eye socket, still cracking with mystical energy, its other prongs scoring deep furrows into the howling monster's face.

"I thought I'd give you a hand, since that thing was eating yours!" a voice called, and Kento grinned in relief as he saw his rescuer leap from the low limb of a tree, winking and rushing over to haul him to his feet.

"_Cye_! Boy, am I glad to see you, buddy!"

Circling the inugami, which was now pawing at its face in an effort to remove the trident, Kento retrieved his naginata. "Give me one good shot," he called to Cye, "and then you're in." Making sure to stay on the beast's now-blind side, Kento jammed the naginata between its ribs and it yelped, trying to cringe away. Cye took the opportunity to leap up and pull his trident free—and watched in horror as the weapon came away easily, the holes in the demon's face hissing and expanding to expose bloody bone.

"_Bloody_ hell," Torrent wheezed as he aligned himself with Kento on the monster's blind side. "Even its _blood_ is corrosive."

"Too bad it doesn't eat it from the inside out!" Kento said. "We'll have to get Mia to explain that part to us later."

"Let's hope Mia's _able_ to explain it to us later," Cye said, readying his trident for the beast's next advance. "Let's hope we're _all_ around for that!"

The inugami shook its head wildly, very much like a dog; blood and saliva slopped from its jaws and hissed as it puddled on the grass. Its one working eye fixed on the two Ronin and the evil third eye flared into bright life above as it stepped one massive paw towards them.

A high-pitched shriek split the night, drawing the attention of both the boys and the monster. Swinging its bleeding head around, the inugami pawed the ground uncertainly, then gave the Ronin a hateful look before turning and lumbering off through the trees, crushing the grass and twigs beneath its paws as it followed the sound, its long strides taking it away rather quickly despite its injuries. As it left, it raised its head and howled, the sound mingling with the girl's piercing screams.

"…what the _hell_?" Cye asked, blinking.

"Come on," Kento said, motioning to his friend that they should tail the beast.

* * *

Ryo and Rowen were almost to the cabin when Wildfire held up one gauntleted hand for silence. "Hear that?"

Rowen tilted his head to listen, and soon agreed—pounding footsteps and ragged breath could be heard somewhere off to their right.

Ryo opened his mouth to call out Mia's name, but Rowen silenced him with a gesture—shouting would give away their position and they didn't know for certain who was out there. Instead, he pointed to a nearby tree, then crouched down, making himself as scarce as possible.

Nodding, Ryo took a position opposite his friend, leaning against the tree and waiting. It wasn't exactly easy to hide when you were wearing a big, red suit of armor, but it was going to have to do.

Sure enough, Rowen had had the right idea—seconds later, the pounding footsteps carried a woman into their path. Not Mia—a tall, dark-haired woman. Every so often she'd stop and glance around, and it was Ryo's bad fortune that she noticed the light gleaming off his armor. Dark eyes widening in shock, she opened her mouth to scream, or call an alarm—whichever, it didn't matter, because Rowen was out of his hiding place like lightning, blocking her escape route. Seeing Strata in place, Ryo stepped out into the moonlight, effectively boxing the girl in.

"Kaori, I presume," Rowen said, and the girl whirled, turning her body to the side, the better to keep both Ronin in sight. Her face was moon-pale beneath a heavy tail of dark hair, and blood was drying beneath her nose and stained her lips in the stingy light. Her dark eyes were dilated to pure black and she sniffled wrathfully, drawing herself up to her full, stately height as she tried to bluff her way through this surprise.

"I know who _I_ am," the dark girl retorted in a clear voice. "Who are _you_?"

"We're the guys who are about to take you and your pet demon down," Ryo said, but didn't unsheathe his katana. The demon was nowhere in sight, and the Ronin of Wildfire would never draw down on an unarmed woman.

The girl tensed. "Let me rephrase," she hissed. "_What_ are you?"

"We're askin' th' questions," Rowen said. "Where's Mia? What've ya done wit' her?"

Kaori's pretty face turned positively hateful, tail of dark hair flicking at the air as she whipped her head back and forth between the two Ronin. As they watched in growing horror, she stamped her foot like a petulant child, voice growing shriller and louder as she complained. "That little _brat_," she mewled. "She _hit_ me. Her big cat knocked me down. She took my knife. I just wanted her to _help_ me and she _hurt _me. She's so _mean_—you're—all—so—_mean_." The last rose to an ear-shattering roar as she stamped her foot once more, as hard as she could. "I wanted her to _help_ me and she ran away."

"So she's still alive," Ryo said, unable to help perking up at the thought. "She's out here somewhere."

Like a movie special-effect, the petulant child disappeared and a malicious smile curled across Kaori's bloody face, teeth stained red in the dim light. "Not for longgggg," she sang. "She's not the only one out here."

"Dat's it," Rowen snarled, nocking an arrow to his bow as a scare tactic. "Put yer hands behind yer head, an' march. We're goin' back t'th' cabin an' retracin' yer steps till we find Mia, unnerstand?"

Kaori laughed, a chilling, bell-like sound. "That's what you think. _I'm_ not going anywhere, but _you'd_ better start running."

"You're doing exactly what we tell you to do," Ryo countered, following Rowen's lead and drawing his katana and feinting menacingly at Kaori.

"Why should I?"

"Because we have weapons, and you don't," Ryo said. "You said yourself, Mia has your knife."

"I don't need a knife," Kaori purred softly, deep eyes staring into Ryo's, the black bleeding outward until her eyes were nothing but dark pools of horror. "All I have to do is…"

And she opened her bloody lips and screamed. Both Ronin were startled; neither was touching her, but still she screamed as though she were being torn limb from limb, the sound carrying over the trees.

Somewhere in the distance, a howl rose in answer.

* * *

Sage knelt carefully next to the scrap of pink fabric that he knew all too well. _No_, he thought, picking it up and examining it, not wanting to believe that it was the sweater he constantly draped over Mia's shoulders when she forgot to put it on before she went out. It was more or less intact, but the dark stains on one side were less comforting.

A growl sounded to Sage's left and he bolted to his feet, sword in hand, dropping gracefully into a hanging guard. "Come out and face me, demon," he hissed. "I fear nothing."

But it was a familiar white shape that bounded up, circling Sage quickly, butting his head against the blond's hip.

"White Blaze," Sage said, relieved. "Boy, am I glad to see you." He knelt to give the tiger a pat. "Did it get you? You okay?" The tiger snuffled, and Sage could see that some of the fur on his chest was matted and dark. "You're hurt?" He stroked through the bloody fur, but found no wound, and a terrible possibility occurred to him as he glanced back to the bloody sweater. "It's not yours."

The tiger butted his head against Sage's shoulder impatiently.

"Where?" Halo asked. "Where is she?"

As soon as he knew he was understood, White Blaze wheeled and took off into the dark of the wood. It was all Sage could do to follow the dim white shape as it led the way, and when they reached their destination he saw a sight that made his blood run cold.

"No," he whispered hoarsely.

Mia lay against a cedar, eyes closed, lashes dark on her skin, which looked ghastly, almost transparent in the pale light. One side of her torn t-shirt was a red ruin.

"No," Sage repeated, kneeling at her side, squinting to find the pulse still beating faintly at the hollow of her throat. Even in the dim light, he could see the slight rise and fall of her breast. She was breathing. She was alive, but for how much longer was anyone's guess. "Open your eyes, Mia. It's Sage. Can you hear me?"

No answer. Carefully, he pulled the unconscious girl to him. Her head lolled bonelessly on his armored shoulder and Sage's heart began a sick thudding in his chest. Years of meditation and focus swirled in his mind and drained away, leaving him unclear and dizzy with fear. This girl had no training in warfare, no magical ability, no weapon save her knowledge and no armor save her courage. She'd slept fitfully on that sofa, crying out in the night from terror-filled dreams; had clung to him at the funeral, trying to hide her tears in his shoulder. _Afraid_, so afraid, and yet she had insisted on being on the front lines every skirmish, had run ahead boldly in her search for truth, and even as she lay unconscious and bleeding her heart beat and she drew breath, too tough to die.

"I won't let you." The promise again, as fierce in his heart as it had been years before. "I won't let you die."

He touched gentle fingers to the angry cut on her side, wincing as her blood candy-coated his fingers. "No, no, no," he gritted, free hand searching for his no-dachi. The night was so dark, but if he could catch even the faintest sliver of moonlight…

The blade had never let Sage down before. Tonight was no exception. Reflected moonlight twinkled almost merrily over the ragged edges of Mia's wound. If he could just bind it, just long enough to get her help—

His vision blurred and he was suddenly sharing her pain, feeling the running-doe clamor of her heart, a sting as the skin knit together, a sickening head injury flaring into bright agony and then dulling as the Halo's light and the ferocity of his concern for her bound her wounds.

"Mia, wake," he entreated, her injuries beating across his psyche as he tried to pull his consciousness back. "Wake up, Mia! Open your eyes."

She made a soft sound like a dove's cry, stirring against his shoulder, tidepool eyes hazy as they focused on him.

"Oh, Sage," she whispered breathlessly through bloodless lips. "I think that I've been dreaming."

"You've been hurt," he said. "Rest a minute."

"It was a scary dream," she continued, cheek pressing against his shoulder, eyelids drooping. "But you came to wake me. I knew you'd come for me. I told her, I said you'd come…"

Her eyes widened as she remembered _who_ she'd told, and the circumstances of her injuries came flooding back to her. Jumping in his embrace like she'd received an electrical shock, she seized his arm. "_Her_. It's Kaori, Sage, she—"

"Easy. Easy, now," he soothed. "Don't try to talk. You've lost a lot of blood."

"We'll lose a lot more than that if we don't stop Kaori!" Mia cried. She squirmed in his arms, but hissed in a breath as her hurts made themselves known, falling back against him. "She's _crazy_, Sage, and the inugami is following her. We've got to get to the others."

Nodding, Sage rose to his feet, one arm beneath her thighs and the other supporting her back. Unprepared for the sudden shift in position, Mia uttered an exclamation and clasped her hands around his neck as he lifted her in a threshold carry. "Sage! What are you doing? Put me down."

He narrowed his eyes at her, as if she'd suggested he throw her down a hole.

"Put me _down_," Mia repeated, despite her stranglehold on him. What little blood she had left appeared to be rushing to her face in a blush. "You—you don't have to carry me!"

"Stubborn woman," he muttered, making no move to let her go.

"Y-you need your hand free for your sword," Mia added with sudden common sense. "You can't carry me."

"Mia, you're _hurt_," Sage said, the fear of finding her pale and unmoving still etched in his eyes, concern dueling with the wisdom of her insight. "Can you even walk?"

She brushed her knuckles against his uncovered cheek and smiled. Carefully, he let her down, and she held her hand out to him, her own blood drying on her fingertips. "Help me, and I'll run."

For one long minute he simply looked at her, in awe of her courage once more. Then, nodding, he took her hand, the other clasped around the hilt of his no-dachi, lighting their way.

* * *

As Ryo and Rowen watched in horror, a doglike creature the size of an elephant broke through the trees and lumbered into the clearing, a rumbling growl oozing from its jaws. One eye was dark, blood flowing from the empty socket and running down ragged wounds on its face, but the other was slitted and angry, the third one blazing bright, hellish red. Blood matted its fur in half a dozen places, but it seemed to have no trouble advancing on the Ronin.

Smirking, Kaori swept away from the Ronin, eyes sparkling as she beheld her monster. "There you are," she sang, as though greeting a beloved pet. Pointing at Ryo and Rowen, she ordered, "Finish them!"

As though of one mind, Ryo and Rowen split up, and the demon's size hampered its speed—it could not follow two targets at once. Nettled for less than thirty seconds, it committed to following Wildfire as he ran through the brush.

Ryo leapt out of the way of one massive paw as it swiped at him, turning the fall into an awkward shoulder roll. "Bad dog!" he panted, remembering the collar he and Rowen had found in the dumpster. "Why're you helping _her_ for? She's the one who took your freakin' head off!"

"That's right, I _did_," Kaori proclaimed, hopping up onto a fallen tree trunk to watch the battle unfold. She swept an arm grandly out towards the demon, a round silver disk peeking out of the neckline of her sweater to glitter at the end of its chain. "_I_ am your master. And aren't you _hungry_, my love?"

Rowen remembered what Sage had said about the necklace and the rune he'd been looking at in the book at the library. Hiro Imamura had given it to her, Sage had said, and it was a shield rune, a spell of protection. If Kaori really had been in trouble at home, Hiro might have thought the pendant could help keep her safe. And if what Mia had said was true and most of the power behind a spell was force of belief, then Hiro's desire to protect his friend from those who would hurt her might have extended beyond his death. Maybe the pendant _worked_, and it was the only thing keeping Kaori safe from the _demon_!

Raising his bow, the Ronin of Strata nocked an arrow to it and sighted on the spare expanse of Kaori's neck. He was only going to get one shot at this.

But with his aim, one shot was all he'd need.

The bowstring sang, and one arrow flew straight and true.

Kaori gasped, staggering off the tree trunk, one hand flying to her throat. A thin line of blood dribbled between her fingers as she smirked, raising her hand to reveal a shallow wound on the side of her slender neck. "You missed, warrior."

Rowen's eyes were on the arrow, still quivering, buried in the bark of the ash tree behind Kaori. The necklace gleamed faintly in the moonlight, its chain looped around the shaft. "No, I didn't."

"Nice shootin', Tex!" Ryo said appreciatively, figuring out what Rowen was up to. Turning towards the inugami, he cupped his hands around his mouth. "Yo, furball!"

The demon turned with a bass growl, third eye glowing like molten metal, corrosive saliva dripping from its gaping jaws as it sighted them with its one good eye.

Rowen jerked a gauntleted thumb towards Kaori. "When ya get tired'a takin' orders, she's right 'ere for ya!"

Kaori's eyes dilated in the dim light as the beast advanced—not towards either Ronin, but towards the place where _she_ stood. "Stay back!" she cried, voice faltering in her fear. "I am your master! You obey _me_!"

The inugami sniffed the air, then sighted down on the terrified girl who had killed it and turned it into a monster. A rumbling growl trickled from its throat.

"No," Kaori shrieked. "No. _No_!" Whirling, she bolted through the trees, her shrieks giving way to full-throated screaming.

The inugami, no longer bound to obey anyone at all, shook itself, head swinging idly back and forth. Ryo knew instinctively that it would target them again soon enough. "_Now_!" he roared, and raised his katana, leaping for the closest weak spot—the monster's only good eye. Forcing the sword forward with a terrific thrust, he slid the blade deep and felt a low _pop_ as the beast's eye ruptured. The inugami roared, cringing back and shaking, the hilt of the katana sticking out of the bloody eye socket. Furiously, the demon swung its head this way and that, nostrils flaring as it searched for its prey. This time, however, Ryo danced neatly out of its reach. "What's the matter, deadlamp?" he taunted. "Can't you see me?"

"Damn!" Rowen said, loosing another shaft, which buried itself in the inugami's side. It was already bleeding profusely from several wounds, including the one Kento had sliced above its ribs, but showed no signs of slowing. "Why won't this thing go _down_?"

"Giving up already, mates?' a voice called, and Cye barreled into the fray, trident a spinning blur in his hand before he raised it over his head. Like a flash, he jammed it down into the beast's hindpaw, driving the prongs through meat and bone to anchor it to the earth. The monster yelped, straining against the weight. "Too slow, popplepaws!" Torrent crowed. "Let's see you jump around now."

"Cye! Way to go," Ryo cheered, his remaining katana still in hand. "Where's Kento?"

"Coming atcha!" Hardrock bellowed, leaping from a tree limb with his naginata raised. With a blood-freezing battle yell, he drove the blade into the inugami's muzzle, through the roof of its mouth and further, sealing its jaws shut. A horrible mewling whine came from the monster as it pawed wildly at its muzzle, trying to get the weapon loose. Hunkering down, it scratched at itself, drawing more of the acid blood as it howled in pain. The Ronin closed in, knowing they weren't in danger anymore—even demons could be distracted by their nostrils filling up with their own blood.

"_Damn. It_," Kento spat. "This thing is freakin' indestructible. What the hell do we do now?"

"Finish this," Cye said idly, watching the huge beast struggle to breathe. "We've got to kill it."

"How're we s'posda kill it?" Rowen asked. "Our weapons ain't doin' anythin' but annoyin' it!"

"Inferno?" Cye asked, looking hopeful.

"Won't work without Sage." Kento shook his head. "We've got to finish this and find him and Mia."

Ryo watched the inugami as it lay on the forest floor, huge sides puffing in and out like a bellows as it drew labored breath. As he advanced towards it, it growled, not as fiercely as before, but still angrily. Wildfire got the feeling it saw him somehow—the third eye blazed brightly above its hollowed eye sockets, the awful light flickering off the katana hilt still embedded in its face.

As the Ronin of Wildfire stood before the inugami, the monster tried one last time to rise to its feet, a snarl boiling in its massive chest, blood seeping from its many wounds to eat away at the forest floor. Kento's naginata fell from its ruined muzzle, the wound expanding as the acid saliva and burning blood ate away at the demon's own flesh. Ryo was remembering his science classes, dropping pencils and falling asleep and feeling like a screw-up, the information jumbling in his head, naturally occurring substances and biochemical reactions…

_Sulfur base_, he thought, the acrid scent of the monster's corrosive effluvia stinging his nostrils as he got closer. _Sulfur…flammable_.

He didn't need the rage of Inferno…he could create his own right here.

The inugami pushed at the ground with shaky paws, rising unsteadily, shifting its weight to its back legs in preparation for one last, vicious strike. As its head jutted forward, deadly jaws gaping to bite the charging warrior, Ryo of Wildfire's voice burst from his chest and throat, a tiger's roar as he leapt atop the demon's bloody muzzle. "_Flaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaare up noooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwww!_" His remaining katana was a shining blur in his hand just before the blade slid home, through the beast's third eye. The inugami howled, forelegs crumpling beneath it. It tossed its head weakly back and forth, trying to shake off its attacker, but Ryo hung on, the blade anchored deeply in the demon's brain, flames sparking from it to consume the beast from the inside out, fueled by the monster's own corrosive blood.

* * *

In her haste to escape the inugami she now believed was after her, Kaori had panicked and begun running towards the light shining through the trees, believing it to be the cabin window. However, when she reached it, she found not a safe haven but another armored warrior with a sword and the woman she thought she'd already taken care of.

"Kaori!" Mia cried, her hand clasped in the gauntleted hand of her knight. One violet eye blazed from within his helmet; the mad spellcaster recognized him as the boy who'd been at Mia's side at the funeral. Her dark eyes bounced from his armor to Mia to the sword that haloed them both in an ethereal glow. It was clear that she was running the odds and had realized she was outgunned.

"Mercy," she whispered, hands outstretched to them, both beseeching and showing them she was unarmed.

Mia blinked incredulously. "_Mercy_?" she asked, her voice faltering. "Did you show the Imamuras mercy? Would you have shown me mercy?"

Kaori glanced pointedly at the place she had slashed the other woman, but Mia huddled close to Sage, sheltering herself against his side.

"The inugami, Kaori," Sage said urgently. "Where is it?"

Like an audio aid, the pained howl rang through the treetops. Kaori whirled, hair flicking in a bizarre contrast of dark on dark. "What was that?" she gasped.

"The sound of your demon biting the big one," Mia said, letting go of Sage's arm. She wobbled a bit, but her stance was steady enough as she stared her adversary down.

"But that's impossible," Kaori whispered. "_Nothing_ could stop it."

Mia's grin was fierce with pride. "_My_ friends can do _anything_."

Sage's lips quirked into the barest smile.

Kaori's eyes were shimmering in the starlight, the desperate, helpless gaze of an animal caught once more in the trap from which it had escaped. To her, Mia and the Ronin were just more people who were after her. Without her necklace and the knife she'd wielded so carelessly, she was once again the grieving girl in the cemetery, her eyes impossibly sad.

"It's over, Kaori," Mia continued gently. "The demon is gone and your fiancé is dead. That's as good as revenge gets. After you kill them, there isn't any more."

The spellcaster's tears brimmed over. "I just wanted to stop hurting," she whispered.

"The only people who never hurt are dead," Sage said softly. "I am sorry for your suffering. But you can hardly blame us for standing against you. You meant to kill us if you could."

"I _had_ to do it," Kaori protested weakly. "I'm a _human being_. I'm _important._ No one has any right to hurt me."

"Maybe so," Sage said, the light of that impossible wisdom in his winter-cool eyes. "But we are important, too, and no one has a right to hurt us, either. Every creature has a right to fight for its life, or the lives of its loved ones."

Tears spilled in a shining line down Kaori's pale cheek as she looked from Sage to Mia and back again. "I wish…I wish I had friends like you." Whirling, she took off into the dark of the forest before Mia and Sage could stop her.

"Hey, wait!" Mia cried, bolting after the girl.

"Mia! Come back!" Sage grabbed for her, but ended up with a handful of air. Sheathing his no-dachi, he sprinted after the two women, and the darkness fell around them, turning the path ahead into a pit of shadows.

It happened in an instant. One minute Kaori was ahead of them, covering ground like a scared rabbit, and then she was gone, her scream piercing the night and then fading down into the earth.

Mia was in the lead and had only a split second to see what was happening. Sage leapt forward and seized her in his arms, his weight sending them sprawling to the ground. From the low angle, they could see what had stopped Kaori's escape—the well, the old abandoned well that Ryo's father had never bothered to fill in.

Mia shuddered, turning her face away. Sage shielded her eyes with one gauntleted hand as they tried to catch their breath.

"Close one," Mia gasped. "Thanks for catching me."

Despite everything, Sage laughed. "Don't I always?" he said. "I just wish you'd stop running away from me."

Mia smiled up at the Ronin of Halo, reaching up to stroke her knuckles down his cheek. "Never again," she said. "Promise."

Before he could answer her, a voice was heard over the ridge. "Sage! Mia!" It was Ryo.

"Down here," Sage answered, helping Mia to her feet. "We're all right."

Ryo slid down to the bottom of the ridge on the balls of his feet. "Kaori," he asked, glancing around.

Sage shook his head. "No."

"Are you guys okay?" Mia asked.

"_Waylahooooooo_!" was the answer from over the ridge. Kento jogged down, exhilarated from their battle. "We are the _champions_, my friends!"

"The demon?" Sage asked.

"Toasted," Ryo said with satisfaction. "It's not going to hurt anybody anymore."

Rowen and Cye made their way down to join the others. "Fire's out," Cye said. "Grass is looking a little worse for wear, though."

"It'll grow back," Ryo said.

Looped around Rowen's gauntlet was the necklace Kaori had worn; he'd taken it with him when he retrieved his arrow. Now he extended his hand to Mia, the medallion catching the moonlight as it swung back and forth. "Hiro really could do magic," the Ronin of Strata said. "In th' end, it wuz his necklace that wuz protectin' Kaori, after all."

"It wasn't magic," Mia said. "It was goodness." Taking the necklace from Rowen, she drew the knife from her belt and looped the chain around its hilt. Walking carefully around the mouth of the well, she tossed both items in. They sparkled briefly in the dim light, and then were lost forever in the dark of the pit. "She can have that back. It's hers, after all, and it's of no use to anyone else."

"Come here," Sage said softly, reaching one hand out for her. "Mia. Come away from there."

Mia obeyed, suddenly hyperaware of every single cut and bruise, adrenaline ebbing from her veins and leaving her empty and exhausted.

"Should we tell?" Cye wondered aloud. "Should we have the well dredged?"

"No." Ryo shook his head after a moment's thought. "I'll have the well filled in. Should have done it a long time ago, really."

"I'm glad you didn't," Sage said, and the others nodded assent.

"No one will disturb her," Ryo continued, mostly for Mia's benefit. "Not ever again."

Mia nodded. "It's better that way. She was all alone. Hiro was her only friend in the whole world, and he's gone. It's a better burial than she'd have gotten. She'll be…safe, finally." She looked around at the faces of her boys—her very best friends. She'd _never_ know how Kaori must have felt, because she had a family. A strange, armored, fiercely devoted family, the best one she could ever want. She was never alone.

"Betrayal," Cye mused. "A crime of passion, a raging beast, and a sudden death. I bet Hiro and Kaori never thought they'd end up becoming one of their own beloved myths."

Arching a brow, Mia said dryly, "I guess they were mythtaken."

Rowen made a choking sound—the kind hysterical laughter makes when you can't hold it back. More giggles followed, the tension easing from the exhausted warriors now that the battle was over.

Suddenly, Mia was laughing too, laughing uncontrollably. _Hard_, laughing so hard it hurt. And then crying, big hiccupping sobs, the type that only came after days of uncertainty and terror. She buried her face in her hands, whooping in air, pressing the heels of her hands hard against her eyes to grind the tears away.

And then someone was there beside her, gathering her to him, holding her carefully against his armored chest. More hands sought to stroke her hair, clasp comfortingly around her shoulder, circle her wrist. That feeling, that sharp sweet feeling in her heart, it was good to be together…

"It's all right," Sage murmured, rock steady against her, arms strong around her. "Everything's going to be all right."

* * *

Oddly enough, the team member who was the most badly hurt was Mia. The boys ignored her protests that she was fine and insisted on taking her to the emergency room, even though the emergency was hours old. Sage ran three red lights on the way to the hospital in Kento's car while the boys pulled civilian clothes on over their subarmor like bizarre reverse striptease artists. While a doctor shone a flashlight in her eyes and checked her for a concussion, the irrepressible Rowen amused the entire waiting room by reading the Ronins' sexual horoscopes out of an old issue of _Cosmopolitan_.

The doctor took her blood pressure three times, his frown etching deeper lines into his face every single time. Eventually he told her she'd need a transfusion, and glared at her when she was finally set up with the equipment. "Let me guess." He arched a brow, examining the IV. "You cut yourself shaving."

Mia could understand his skeptical exasperation. The wound screamed _knife fight_, and she'd shown up with a gang of guys—although they'd done their best to scrub what blood and dirt they could from their skin and had dressed like they were on their way to a fire. Ryo was wearing that ridiculous shirt with the words "Milk Ball" written across the front, for crying out loud. "I was slicing a bagel and it got away from me," was all she said.

The doctor frowned at her, checking her readings again. "I suppose he's not going to tell, either?" He nodded at the blond boy sitting beside her.

Mia felt a smile curl her lips. "Nope. He's only in here because he doesn't want to hear his horoscope."

"No," Sage said calmly. "I'm in here for something else."

"What?" Mia asked, and then a wave of dizziness passed over her.

Sage's hand curled around hers and squeezed. "This."

"I'm sorry this is hurting you," the doctor said, his expression growing more disturbed, and he passed a hand over his face, looking suddenly weary.

"Look, Ms. Koji. I don't know you…" The doctor glanced pointedly at Sage. "…Or your friends. But you've lost a lot of blood tonight, whether it was an accident or not. I'm not going to force you to tell me the truth, but to be honest with you I don't know how you're even sitting here."

"But…you said I'm going to be fine," Mia said, puzzled.

The doctor looked at her like he thought she was insane. "Ms. Koji, you are going to be fine. But I'll be damned if I know how it turned out that way."

His meaning hung heavily in the air. Mia exchanged a glance with Sage; he tightened his hold on her hand. The doctor waited for an explanation for a few more seconds, then sighed through his nose when he realized he wasn't going to get one. "I don't think you've got a concussion, Ms. Koji, but it might be a good idea to wake up every hour, just to be safe," he said, checking her readings once more. "Do you have an alarm you can set, or someone who can wake you?"

Sage answered smoothly. "She's got five someones. And one very loyal kitty. We'll take care of her."

"They always do," Mia agreed sweetly.

Instead of looking reassured, the doctor seemed thoroughly exasperated with both of them. "I'll send in a nurse to unhook you from this and write you a prescription for antibiotics to fight secondary infection. Just get it filled at any local pharmacy, okay?"

As soon as he'd left them to do that, Mia laughed. "What's he so worked up about? Trying to scare me like that! It's just a scratch."

Sage's hand tightened fractionally on hers. A casual observer would have missed it, but being a faithful student of Halo's subtleties for years, Mia knew how to decode even the tiniest shift in mood. "What?" she asked softly. "What's wrong?"

Sage's shook his blond head, a clear dismissal. His gaze flickered over her body, but it was not something sensual—his violet eyes were streaked with fear as he struggled with a memory.

Mia turned her own attention to the wound, lifting her free hand to touch the raised line that was already scabbing over. The remembered bite of the blade echoed over her senses and she was flooded with sudden, belated fear of her injury. There'd been so many other things to be afraid about at the time, and she'd been so intent on getting to her boys that she hadn't stopped to wonder just _how_ badly she was hurt, and then everything had gone cold and dark until she'd heard his voice, till he'd brought the light.

The light…

"Sage?" she whispered, the only possible answer suddenly becoming clear to her. "Did you…?"

He interrupted, not with a word, but with an action, lifting their intertwined hands and pressing his lips to her skin, just the warmth of his mouth on the back of her hand, something brief and courtly that made her blush.

She wasn't sure what to say. He'd saved her life before, but somehow, _thank you_ just didn't seem like enough this time, didn't run deep enough for everything that was between them. She wanted to hold him, let him feel that her heart was beating and chase that fear from his eyes. "Oh, Sage."

Lowering her hand but keeping it firmly held in his, Sage murmured, "I told you. I won't lose you."

They didn't speak as the nurse came and unhooked the IV from her arm, bandaging it and telling Mia she was all set in a friendly voice that betrayed that the doctor hadn't shared his suspicions with any of the staff. Eventually, he came back with a prescription sheet. Mia's eyes were still trained on Sage; she made three absent attempts to take the paper until the doctor lost his patience and pressed it into her hand. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I hope not to see you again, Ms. Koji," he said shortly.

"Mmhm," Mia murmured, letting Sage help her off the hospital cot. He nodded at the doctor. "Thank you for your help," he said, nudging Mia gently.

Prompted into a response, Mia jumped, nodding quickly as she stammered, "Oh, oh yes. Thank you, Doctor."

The doctor gave them a look that plainly said he thought they were both out of their minds, and Sage steered Mia quickly towards the door.

Kento brightened as they walked back into the waiting room. "So, what's the verdict? You okay?" he asked cheerfully.

Mia sighed and plucked at the bandage in the bend of her elbow. "I have to wake up every hour so I don't die while I'm asleep," she sighed. "But other than that, I think I'm doing pretty great."

"You are one tough chick, gorgeous," Kento said appreciatively. "You just won't go down!"

Mia smiled. "Well, don't give me all the credit. I had a little help."

Sage acknowledged the praise with a squeeze of Mia's hand, a swift and private communication meant only for her.

Mia felt flustered. Trying to distract herself, she turned to the Ronin of Strata. "Hey, Ro. What's my horoscope?"

Rowen's twinkling eyes were on her hand in Sage's. "It's lookin' up, I think."

Sage twirled the keys on the index finger of his free hand. "Let's go home," he said, and the others smiled and nodded in agreement.

"So?" Cye asked breezily as soon as they were all in the CJ. "What are we doing tomorrow?"

The others all collapsed into laughter, Kento grabbing Cye in a half-nelson, while Ryo decided on a noogie. Rowen leaned over the passenger-side headrest to join in the poking, and his elbow jabbed Mia in the side, which made it hard to keep her seat on the console. Sage muttered a curse, trying to keep the car straight in their lane, but when Mia glanced at him, he was smiling.

God, but it was nice to have friends.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

There you have it—my favorite part of the story, finally told. *^_^*

**The dogs of war:** In Shakespeare's time, "the dogs of war" was a term for soldiers, and to cry "Havoc!" was an instruction to take no prisoners, sort of like yelling "Charge".

**Tetris:** Mia's reference to _Tetris_ is not anachronistic—_Tetris_ was released in 1984 and made it to the Nintendo Game Boy in 1989. On our PC version, my mother, stars shine bright over her brave bones, held the high score for years under the name "Square*Eyes".

**_Res ipsa loquitor_****: **Literally, "the thing speaks for itself", this is actually a legal term linked to the common law of negligence, stating that sometimes a broken law or breach of ethics can be inferred from the outcome of something, even without any direct evidence of a defendant's actions—basically, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably safe to assume the obvious.

**Strike three, other team gets a chance to steal:** This witty barb is also not anachronistic—_Family Feud_ began airing in 1976.

_**We are the champions**_**:** Kento knows the best way to brag—using the lyrics of my beloved Freddie Mercury, who was Made In Heaven himself.

_**Cosmopolitan**_**:** It's not the first time I've referenced _Cosmopolitan_, a horrible women's magazine I like to refer to as "nympho info", but I should have pointed out earlier that this is also not anachronistic—_Cosmo _has been brainwashing women into thinking they're overweight and worthless since 1886. Thanks a lot, you jerks.

**Some things about inugami:** Inugami are absolutely a part of Japanese lore, and you can look them up, but I'll readily admit I took a lot of liberties with the demon's design. For instance, there is nothing in legend that says inugami can change size; I simply added that in because I personally found the demon a lot scarier when it was smaller than I did when it was big. There's also no recorded instances of it having a psychic third eye; that was simply a facet I added it to bind it closer to its master, Kaori Satou. Lastly, there is nothing in any kind of inugami legend that says that it has corrosive effluvia (nor, as Kento pointed out, is it biologically feasible for such a creature to exist without dissolving from the inside out)—as I mentioned in an earlier chapter, I am a very big fan of H.R. Geiger's design for the aliens in Ridley Scott's _Alien_, and I think it's a very scary aspect to an already frightening creature when, as Rowen put it, even its spit is dangerous. So that's my inugami, the patchwork terror of _Cross My Heart_—and I hope he was as entertaining to you as he was to me! He was my very own Bruce the Shark, and I'll sure miss him *^_^* Luckily, the best thing about stories is I can always come back and visit him, and I certainly will.

**Next chapter: **That's right, true believers…there's still one chapter to go! Kaori and the inugami may be gone for good, but our heroes aren't quite done, not yet. There's a few small loose ends to tie up—and one big one, of course. *^_~*


	8. It's My Feeling We'll Win In The End

**Author's Introduction:**

*smiles, eyes shiny* Well, here we are, true believers. This is it—the last chapter of _Cross My Heart, And Hope To Die_, from 2007 to here. Hopefully I've done this justice tying up all the loose ends, and I just want to thank everyone whose encouragement and enjoyment of this story made it so much fun to tell. Thank you all for your patience, your kind words, your questions and comments—I'd never have finished this tale without you, and I only hope you've had as good a time with it as I have.

Enough out of me. Take us home, Simple Minds:

* * *

**Chapter Eight: It's My Feeling We'll Win In The End**

* * *

_Won't you come see about me?  
I'll be alone, dancing  
You know it, baby  
Tell me your troubles and doubts  
Giving me everything, inside and out  
Love's strange, so real in the dark  
Think of the tender things that we were working on  
Slow change may pull us apart  
When the light gets into your heart  
Don't you forget about me  
Don't you try and pretend  
It's my feeling we'll win in the end  
I won't harm you or touch your defenses  
Vanity and security  
Don't you forget about me  
I'll be alone, dancing  
You know it, baby  
Going to take you apart  
I'll put us back together at heart_

**(Simple Minds,_ Don't You (Forget About Me)_)**

* * *

_In Mia's dream, she chased a white rabbit with tiger stripes down a well. Her fall was slow, allowing her to see the spectral figures that waited below—Kaori, the dark warlord Cale, a suit of armor with no one inside, and a giant squirrel with enormous teeth._

_A hand grabbed hers, stopping her frightening descent. Before she could look up to see who had caught her, her eyes opened. The dream faded in the lift of lashes, but the touch on her hand remained. _

"Hey," Sage whispered, stroking her palm lightly. Slowly, Mia realized that she was on the sofa in Ryo's apartment, lying across Sage's lap with a blanket tucked around her; one of his arms encircled her shoulders protectively. "Wake up and talk to me for a second."

Carefully, she sat up, blinking the sleep away; Ryo's borrowed "Milk Ball" shirt slipped off of one shoulder as she moved. Everything around her was soft shades of grey. "What time is it?"

"Almost dawn," he said. She saw his nostrils flare in a concealed yawn and wondered how much sleep he'd gotten. "We're nearly through. Sorry to keep disturbing you."

"S'okay," Mia sighed. "Nightmares."

Sage's eyes softened and he brushed her bangs back from her face. "Day will break soon."

Mia glanced around the darkened room. The coffee table had been pushed to the side of the room beneath the window, and the floor was covered with slumbering Ronin, each curled in a position best suited to rest their aching limbs and soothe their hurts. The floor probably wasn't the best place for them to sleep, but this wasn't the first time they'd abandoned comfort in favor of closeness. After nearly being torn apart by snarling, drooling monsters or armored demon warlords, you wanted your friends nearby to remind you that everyone was alive and in one piece.

Ryo grit his teeth as he struggled with a nightmare; Mia wondered if he were reliving his brave standoff against the demon. Slipping off the sofa to kneel at his side, she brushed his unruly bangs out of his eyes until he stilled beneath the soothing touch. When he was quiet, she smiled and stood up, wobbling as she made her way back to the sofa. Sage took her hand as soon as she was near enough, steadying her as she drew her knees up to curl beside him, cuddling into his side.

Instead of discouraging her, Sage seemed to welcome her nearness, trailing his knuckles down her bare arm as he let go of her hand. The touch was slow, gentle, almost shy—the kind of thing you do when you and your crush are just starting out and you begin testing the acceptable limits of touch, exploring your shared physicality. "How do you feel?" he asked, keeping his voice low for the benefit of his sleeping friends.

She shrugged. "Sore. And sort of dizzy. My side aches."

Sage frowned. "It'll be sore until the skin heals properly. Even if we treat it as best we can until then, you'll likely have a scar, and I'm sorry for that."

Mia only smiled. "I'm not. If it scars, it means I lived through it."

As she watched, Sage's expression lightened, and while he didn't smile back, he looked impressed. "My armor may be sprung from wisdom, but I'm not as wise as you."

Mia bumped his shoulder with hers affectionately. "I like you the way you are."

She thought he flushed slightly in the dark, but it was hard to tell; the fact that he turned away from her to hide it was a better confirmation. "It's still dark," he said, his whisper rough with embarrassment. "You should go back to sleep."

"What about you? Have you even slept at all?" she asked, concerned.

"I'm all right," he said, but his eyes flickered drowsily. "You go back to sleep."

"What if I said I'd stay up unless you slept too?" she asked.

A smile finally tugged at Sage's lips. "You'd last five minutes."

Mia socked him in the shoulder lightly and he laughed. "Fine," she whispered teasingly. "I'll go back to sleep." And she pushed him, one hand on his shoulder, the other on his chest. Caught unaware, Sage was put off-balance, the momentum carrying him down to lay against the sofa pillow she'd been sleeping on. Before he could straighten up, Mia pinned him neatly, snuggling down close in the limited space, her head resting on his shoulder.

"Hey!" he protested in a whisper. "I'm supposed to be watching out for you, remember?"

"Can't hear you," she said, pulling the blanket over them both, closing her eyes and exaggerating a yawn for effect. "Already sleeping. Couldn't last five minutes."

He laughed again, the sound shaking them both. Slowly, he relaxed; Mia felt one arm encircle her, bringing her even closer against him. With his free hand, he brushed her bangs out of her eyes, fingertips trailing gently through her hair. A feeling of safety stole over her as she felt him settle, all warmth and solidity beside her in the soft grey room. Just before she fell asleep again, there was a feather-light touch on her forehead. A kiss.

* * *

Dawn was breaking as Detective Shiga ducked under the yellow-bandaged door in the basement of the library at Shinsai University. There were so many ribbons of crime-scene tape around the school lately that it looked like a damn parade was coming through, he reflected darkly. This time, it had been an unlucky custodian who had discovered the body—Eiko Imamura, wife of the recently deceased Hiro Imamura. She had been found when the custodian had checked the doors while cleaning the hallway. Finding Imamura's office unlocked, the custodian had elected to investigate—and immediately wished he hadn't. According to CSU, it looked like Eiko Imamura had come to her husband's office, possibly to collect his belongings, and the grief had been too much for her to bear.

Suicide. At least it wasn't a damn animal attack like that homeless guy weeks ago, Shiga thought with some relief. That had been nasty—so nasty that the new medical examiner had actually vomited into a sewer grate, leaving some of the officers to yank his chain about not being able to keep it together and prompting the CSU team to be grateful that at least he hadn't thrown up on the body.

This was bloody, Shiga decided, like that had been bloody, but whereas the homeless victim had been frightening, this was just...sad. Eiko Imamura had been a beautiful woman, and her expression was somehow helpless beneath her closed eyes as she lay in her own blood like a ghastly Sleeping Beauty.

"Isn't that sweet." Detective Kozu's voice dripped with sarcasm as he indicated the woman's suicide note, still burning in green pixels on the computer that was on Imamura's desk.

_I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE...IT'S TOO MUCH WITHOUT HIRO_

_I'M SORRY_

Shiga was sorry, too. Glaring at his partner, he actually growled, "If you don't think she deserves some peace and quiet, we haven't been working the same cases these last few weeks."

For once, Kozu backed down, a look of mild surprise crossing his angular face. Whipping his head to get his ever-flopping forelock out of his eyes, he reached into his pocket for a pair of the latex gloves he'd jammed in there before leaving his car. "Everything all right, man?"

Shiga regretted letting so much emotion spill into his voice; he had to force himself not to snatch the gloves his partner offered him. "Yes," he grunted. "Other than the cooling body at our feet, everything's just fine and dandy."

Kozu wasn't convinced. "Kids O.K.?"

"The kids are with their mother, and fine." The words were as sharp as the snap of the gloves as he put them on; Shiga did not like talking about his family situation, even with his partner, who knew its ins and outs.

Detective Kozu, while not well-versed in the art of tact, glanced at the suicide note once more, then wandered towards the desk. "It's weird she didn't do it here, at the desk. Don't you think? Shiga?"

Detective Shiga was kneeling by the body. "Looks like there are footprints here."

Kozu spun in the chair. "Look at me, I'm a genius," he joked, then stopped his spin so that the chair was facing the body. "Of course there are footprints there. The custodian came in and found the body."

"Sure, but this one looks weird..." Shiga reached a gloved finger towards the bloody print.

"The guy panicked, Shiga," Kozu pointed out. "He was a mess when the uniforms got here. Probably shuffled his feet. That's why they're smudged."

Shiga stared hard at the smudgy prints for another minute, then sighed heavily. "Yeah, probably. What do you make of the head wound?"

Kozu was ready for this one. "Easy. She fell. Bashed her head on the way down. Hope it was quick, poor thing."

Shiga wasn't entirely convinced, but he had to admit he couldn't argue with his partner's logic, and the M.E.'s report would likely confirm it. Getting to his feet, he asked, "Done playing around?"

Kozu tilted his head. "I don't know. Why do you think she didn't do it here, at the desk?"

Shiga glanced back down at Eiko's still form. "She wouldn't have. Her husband's work was his life. She wouldn't have disrespected it by bleeding all over it. Not this woman. Not this marriage. I'm surprised she bothered to do it here at all. If she wanted to feel close to him, she could have stayed home."

"We'll never know now." Kozu shrugged. "We'll have to wait for the M.E.'s report and all, but this is looking pretty open-and-shut to me, pal."

Shiga nodded gravely. Instinct was tugging at his mind, insisting that there was more to this than met the eye, but the look of profound sorrow on the dead woman's face was wrenching at his heart. In the end, emotion won out. Kozu was right, and he wasn't about to argue with forensic evidence, which would undoubtedly support the theory of suicide, just because he was feeling nostalgic about his own failed marriage. "I suppose we should let the dead bury the dead. At least she's out of pain, now."

"In more ways than one," Kozu remarked, in an oddly sympathetic manner for him.

By the time CSU had done its work and the body had been taken away for autopsy, it was midmorning. The detectives were overdue for a meal break, and when they slid into a booth at the diner across town, they were grateful not to have to wait too long for service. Their waitress smiled at them as she bounced to their table in a perky manner totally at odds with her dark eyeshadow and thick mascara. "Morning, guys. What can I get for the stalwart officers of the law?"

A grin broke out on Kozu's face. "Dammit, Serena, I can't stand how cheerful you are in the morning. Start frowning, would you? Make sure they burn my eggs. You're about all the sunny side up I can take today."

The waitress laughed, scribbling on her pad. "So the usual, then. You got it, Detective." Turning to dimple at Shiga, she asked, "And for the good cop?"

Shiga chuckled, despite himself. "Good morning, honey. I think steak and eggs are in order after what we've had to deal with, and we'll have two coffees as black as this bastard's heart." He jerked a thumb in the direction of Kozu, who snorted.

"Coming right up, boys. You keep on serving and protecting," she sang, then sauntered off to fill their order.

"You just keep on serving, Serena," Kozu teased after her, and she burst out laughing as she headed for the kitchen.

Shiga shook his head, smiling. "You're a jackass. I hope you don't talk to your girlfriend that way."

Kozu snorted again. "Are you kidding? She'd have my head on a stick. The reason she and I work so well is that no one else'll put up with my shit, and don't think I don't know that."

"Elisa's a good woman," Shiga agreed.

"Damn straight. She wants to have you around for dinner soon, by the way. Always asks me how you're doing."

Shiga grinned. "And what do you tell her?"

"That you'll sleep when you're dead, what else?" Kozu smirked.

When the dishes were cleared away and Serena the waitress was given a generous tip, Kozu waved away the money Shiga held out to him. "It's on me, pal."

Shiga frowned. "Don't be ridiculous. I ordered steak."

Kozu only smiled, and while his eyes still gleamed with the mocking razor wit that was his trademark, his voice was warm as he got up from his chair. "Do you really want to pay me back? Call your wife."

"Ex-wife," Shiga reminded him idly as he too rose from his chair.

Kozu's look was pointed. "Call your wife," he repeated, more gently this time, and then the two men walked out of the diner to the waiting car.

Detective Shiga wouldn't remember this exchange a year and a half later, while he was waiting for Karen at the local bookstore with a single daffodil wrapped in paper tucked beneath his arm. She'd called to let him know she'd be running a little late because she'd hit traffic dropping the kids off at the sitter's—after a few cautious months of spending more time together and a year of rediscovering everything that had brought them together in the first place, they'd agreed to break the news of their remarriage together as soon as they were certain of it, not wanting to get the kids' hopes up.

Shiga could readily admit his own hopes were up; to quell his nervousness, he wandered aimlessly through the comparative religion section, hoping to find a philosophy book or something that might give him some insight as to how not to screw up this time. Instead, a book on mythology caught his eye, and when he pulled it off the shelf, he couldn't for the life of him understand what had interested him about it. It looked like just another book of wild fairy tales, and he knew from years of telling bedtime stories to his kids that most of the lore in Japan was the stuff of nightmares.

The title didn't do anything to discourage that kind of thinking, either. _If You Go Out In The Woods Today...a Comparative Guide on Japanese Demonology_ was printed on the book's dust jacket. _By Hiro Imamura_, it boasted, and in smaller letters, _Foreward by Mia Koji_.

Something tugged at Detective Shiga's mind, but before he had a chance to properly consider it, Karen peeked girlishly around the shelf he stood beside, looking every bit as lovely as the day he'd met her in front of the student union seventeen years before, and he replaced the book on the shelf without a backwards glance, more than happy to leave the past in the past and focus on the future.

* * *

When Mia woke, she was alone on the sofa, a chill against her side alerting her to the fact that Sage was no longer beside her. Jackknifing to an upright position, she let the blanket fall away and glanced around to see Kento smiling at her, already scrubbed and dressed in jeans and a sleeveless white t-shirt.

"Don't panic," Hardrock soothed. "He's in the shower."

Mia unsuccessfully fought a blush. "He must be exhausted. He stayed up with me all night."

"Nah, he was sleeping when I got up," Kento said, sitting next to her on the sofa. "He was going to wait till you woke up to shower, but I told him I'd keep a lookout. He was pretty worried about you," he added cheerfully.

Mia turned her face away, tugging Ryo's borrowed shirt back over her shoulder. "I'm fine, but that's sweet of him."

"Well, Sage is a great guy," Kento said, and while he was still smiling, the words were pointed.

Finally smiling back, Mia nodded. "I know that."

Kento grinned. "Good. Don't you forget it," he said in a friendly tone, chucking her under the chin. "But I know you won't, gorgeous. You're great too."

Bumping his shoulder playfully, Mia let him wrap one arm around her in a hug.

"Don't crush her, Ken," Sage ordered, emerging from the bathroom in a cloud of steam. His haste was betrayed in how disheveled he looked—his hair was mussed from pulling his t-shirt on, and he'd left the bathroom before he'd even gotten one arm through the sleeve of his button-down. Mia almost giggled at the normally polished Warrior of Halo going anywhere with a wrinkled cuff or messy hair, but she was secretly far more impressed with his haste to return to her.

"I'm O.K.," she promised. "It's just a little sore. Where are the others?"

"Ryo's getting dressed, and Cye and Rowen went to get the morning papers," Kento said. "It's your turn to shower, gorgeous, and then we were thinking of breakfast at the Starlite before we hit the road. What do you think?"

Mia realized how hungry she was; she hadn't eaten the night before due to nervousness, and her stomach rippled with a hunger pang just hearing the words. "Sounds like heaven."

"That's what I said!" Kento laughed. "Go on, shower's free. Let's hope Sage left you some hot water."

Sage glared playfully, smirking. "_I_ hope the next time you shower there aren't any towels, Kento."

Mia got up, tugging the borrowed shirt down over her thighs. "I won't be long," she promised.

"Hey, Mia!" Ryo said, emerging from the bedroom in a sleeveless hoodie and jeans. "How're you feeling?"

"Pretty good," Mia said cheerfully, rummaging in her duffel bag for her pink cotton skirt and a black t-shirt—she'd thrown the denim skirt and torn shirt from last night away, knowing the bloodstains were hopeless. "I'll feel even better once I shower and eat. I hope you guys are as hungry as I am!"

Wildfire grinned. "You bet. Come on, hurry up! I'm starving."

Mia nodded, bouncing past him into the bathroom in search of towels.

* * *

After Mia had left the room, Kento got up from the sofa. "I think I'll bring the car around," he said, twirling the keyring on his index finger. "We had to park pretty far last night after we got back from the hospital, and we may as well go straight to the cabin from the diner after we eat. I'll be right back."

The other two boys nodded at him, and Hardrock left the apartment, leaving Wildfire and Halo looking at each other over the coffee table. Sage couldn't help but notice the other boy's expression had suddenly turned serious; he raised a brow at Ryo, thinking he had something he wanted to say, but Ryo offered nothing save companionable silence until the sound of running water could be heard from the bathroom.

"Thanks for waking Mia up last night," Ryo said. "I was so wiped out after the fight with the demon; I slept like the dead."

Sage smiled reassuringly at his friend. It had been a long night for all of them, and it had been good to wake Mia anyway—he'd seen nightmares chase across her face many times as he'd sat by her side through the night and had been happy to rouse her from them. "I didn't mind," he promised.

Ryo nodded, settling back against the far wall as if Sage had said exactly what he'd wanted to hear, but the tension between them didn't lessen. Sage waited, knowing he'd spit whatever it was out when he was ready and not before.

Nothing else was said until Wildfire pushed off from the wall restlessly. He began to head towards the kitchen, but thought better of it in mid-motion, turning again and stabbing the air between him and Sage with a finger. "You break her heart, and _I_ break both your arms, and burn down your house," he said. "Got that?" Ryo's unruly brows dipped over his tiger-blue eyes, which were as severe as Sage had ever seen them.

The warrior of Halo fought a laugh. This was a ritual—a time-honored brotherly privilege to threaten any of his surrogate sister's potential suitors with savage, violent beatings—and he didn't want to spoil it for Ryo. "Got it," he promised solemnly.

Ryo visibly relaxed, the tension easing from his shoulders and the smile returning to his face like the sun coming out after a storm. "Good." He turned away and continued into the kitchen, his obligation to his "sister" fulfilled.

Only when he was alone in the living room did Sage allow himself to laugh. Wildfire had probably been dying to say that for a very long time. He'd done a good job, too—the arson threat was a nice touch.

* * *

They didn't even have to place orders at the Starlite any more. Their waitress grinned as she placed cups and plates in front of them, rattling off their usuals with the pride of practice. "Cherry Coke and grilled cheese with tomato and bacon for Mia, western omelet over here, I'll get you extra ketchup in a second, Ryo. Pardon my reach—" She extended a pale arm over the table to place a teacup in front of Cye. "There's your Earl Grey, Cye, you just let me know if you want any more. Rowen, the Belgian waffles will be up in just a minute, okay, hon?"

She took the smallest plate from its balanced position on her pale forearm and placed it in front of Sage. "Someday I'll get you to order something other than toast and tea," she scolded, frowning playfully as she replaced his cup of tea with a fresh one. Her face lit up as she placed the last dish. "Extra powdered sugar on the pancakes today, just for you," she trilled, heavily made-up eyes softening as they rested on her best customer.

"Marry me, Serena," Kento sighed, fork at the ready.

The waitress laughed, dark ponytail waving. "You couldn't keep up with me, Kento, especially after eating that."

Rowen loved that and drummed his fists on the table in time with his laughter. "She's got your number awright, Kento. Too bad she won't give ya hers!"

The waitress winked. "Get stuck into that, guys, and call me if you need anything." She walked off, ponytail swishing.

"Remind me to overtip her," Cye said, putting his spoon into his soft-boiled egg.

While they were eating, Rowen and Cye began passing out all the newspapers they'd collected from their earlier newsstand run. Since it was nearly afternoon at this point, several later editions had articles of interest. Hiro Imamura's death had been officially ruled an accident, and an unlucky janitor had appeared to have found the body of Eiko Imamura, which was likely to be ruled a suicide.

"I still feel like we should tell someone," Cye said.

"Tell them what?" Ryo said through a mouthful of egg. "The truth's down the rabbit hole. No one will believe us."

"No one ever believes us," Mia groused, sipping her cherry Coke. "Maybe we should tell the story to the _Sun-Times_."

The protest came from the unlikeliest of corners—Kento slammed his copy of that esteemed rag down on the table, rattling the salt shaker. "We're not telling the _Sun-Times_. These idiots aren't journalists! They're just hacks is what it is!"

The other Ronin stifled laughter at Hardrock's outrage. Sage looked weary, pinching the skin between his eyebrows as he selected a piece of buttered toast from his dish. "Kento, we've been telling you that this whole time. What made you change your mind?"

Kento flipped the tabloid open. "Look what they printed today!"

Everyone leaned over the article. _TERROR OVER…FOR NOW_, was the headline, and the text was bordered by sloppy cut-and-pasted photos from movie magazines and comic books—all of snarling canines and beast men caught in the lumpy, misshapen stage between animal and human.

"Is that Lon Chaney?" Mia asked incredulously.

"I think it's Lon Chaney, Jr.," Cye clarified.

Kento was sputtering in fury. "If we went to the papers or the cops and told them what really happened, we'd be laughed out of the place if we were lucky."

"Arrested, if unlucky," Rowen added wryly.

"Exactly!" Kento roared. "But these jokers can say it was a werewolf and they get paid for it! I'm never reading this rag again."

"Hallelujah," Sage chuckled, tearing a crust off his toast.

Mia took the tabloid. "It says that the people of Toyama can rest easy knowing the full moon is over for now, but we should all be on our guard next month, because the beast can't resist the call of the moon." Wrinkling her nose, she repeated, "The _call_ of the _moon_?"

"Hey, is that the _Sun-Times_?" Serena the waitress asked cheerfully, returning with Rowen's Belgian waffles and more syrup, along with another cherry Coke for Mia. "There you go, darlin'," she said as she placed plates and cups. "Who wants more ketchup?"

Hands were raised, and Serena handed the bottle over. "Careful with that, now," she warned playfully. "Don't want the reporters on that magazine thinking you guys are covered in blood! They might say vampires got you."

Kento shook his head, still steamed about the idiocy of the tabloid article. "That'd be just as sensible as anything else that's happened to us this week."

Serena laughed merrily, taking Sage's empty dish from him and replacing it with another stack of toast without him having to ask. "Tell me about it, honey. You wouldn't believe the cast of characters that comes into this place. If werewolves came in and ordered their hamburgers extra rare, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised."

"Is that right?" Mia asked, smiling at the other girl.

Serena popped a hip and winked big at Mia, her long, dark lashes fanning down and back up again like a movie special effect. "Of course! Name me a diner in town with better burgers! Where else are they going to go?"

This matter-of-fact announcement got a laugh from the entire table. "Ya gotta point, Serena," Rowen said. "An' th' apple pie is just as good."

The girl beamed. "You know it, sweetie. Why don't I bring you all some?"

Kento perked up right away. "I can't think of a better way to get this bad taste out of our mouths." He held the tabloid up, prompting another round of laughter from everyone present.

Serena the waitress was making a killing in tips over the course of the day, but the reason her eyes sparkled as they paid her was not because of the money but because her sharp eyes noticed an exchange between tall, blond Sage and pretty, smiling Mia, who were seated beside each other. When the money was collected from all the patrons at the table, he stopped Mia from reaching for her handbag, simply taking enough money for both of them out of his own wallet. Mia angled a shy glance at him but let him have his way, the entire exchange taking place below the table and out of sight of the other boys.

She was sorry to see them leave when they got up from the table; she'd become attached to the big, quirky gang over the week they'd sat in her section. Her farewell was warm and sincere as she waved them off, and their response, delivered by Kento, was no less so.

"Y'all come back."

"You bet."

* * *

For the last time that week, everyone piled into Kento's CJ-6 as best they could—Sage's car had been left behind at the cabin along with some of their luggage and everyone had crammed into the truck in an effort to get Mia to the hospital as fast as possible. Mia was having trouble keeping her seat on the console; Sage's hand on her back kept her steady until they got out of the city and she saw the mangled corpse lying in the road, looking so much worse in the harsh light of day.

"_No_! Oh, _no_!" she exclaimed, nearly bolting off the console as if she'd jump straight through the windshield to get to their fallen comrade's side.

"Mia, calm down—" Ryo said from beside Sage, trying to keep her still. Kento slowed the CJ and Rowen attempted to cover his friend's eyes to keep the horrible sight from her, but as the truck stopped she tore Rowen's reaching hands away from her face and climbed over his lap to get out the passenger's-side door. Her cry of anguish echoed through the woods as she dashed into the road.

"My car! Oh, my _car_!"

As they exited the CJ, the Ronin exchanged guilty looks—they'd told Mia that they'd had a car accident on the way back to the cabin, but they'd been so concerned with stopping Kaori and the inugami at first, and then later with Mia's own safety, that no one had broken the news of just how terrible it had been. Now she ambled around the bulk of her beloved truck in a slow, sad circle. "What happened? What _happened_?"

The Jeep, unfortunately, was a total loss.

The damage looked about a dozen times worse in the light of day; twisted metal dark with smoke damage, the leather seats distressed from the sudden heat and then the dousing of water, the whole thing lying almost forlornly in the crater water and fire had eaten into the ground.

"We are sorry," Ryo promised. "We are _so_ sorry."

"It's my fault," Cye piped up. "I had to soak the damned thing—it was on fire."

"Nah, it's our fault," Rowen said sheepishly. "We're th' ones who set it on fire."

"We blew it _up_," Ryo said, voice tinged with horror. "We thought it might stop the inugami, but all it did was slow it down."

"It was like a member of the team," Kento said. "It followed us everywhere."

"I drove for the first time in it," Sage remembered.

"It rode valiantly inta battle," Rowen agreed.

"It's the way it would have wanted to go," Mia said sadly, completing her circle as the boys fanned out in front of the downed Jeep. "Remind me never to let any of you drive my car again."

"We won't get the chance," Sage said, sounding oddly nostalgic as he put a hand on what was left of the vehicle. "Farewell, noble steed."

Rowen pretended to play "Taps" on an imaginary bugle until Cye shoved an elbow into his side, muttering, "You are such an incredible shit."

Rowen chuckled. "If ya don't laugh, ya cry," he said wisely.

"He's right," Mia said. "I can't look at it any more, guys. Let's just get back into Kento's and get out of here."

"What's going to happen to it?" Cye asked once they were all back in the CJ and the Jeep was a receding sight in the rearview mirror.

"Mia's going to report it stolen and then collect the insurance money," Kento said matter-of-factly. The redhead let her mouth fall open in surprise.

"I can't do that, Kento! It's lying!"

Sage arched a blond brow. "I hate to admit it, but Kento may have a point."

"They're right, gorgeous," Rowen said. "Why don'tcha try 'splaining it t'your insurance carria? 'Ere, you be th'insurance guy. I'm you." Fluttering his lashes comically, he said in a falsetto, "A demon chomped my car an' my friends set it on fire hopin' t'blow up th' little critta before it got big enough t'kill us all."

Mia frowned. "I hope you don't think I really sound like that."

Cye laughed. "Mia, you've gone above and beyond to save the city from the inugami. I think collecting on insurance money when your car was destroyed in the line of duty is only fair."

Mia sighed, looking at her hands. "I guess. I loved that car, though."

"Think you'll get another Jeep?" Ryo asked, eyes twinkling. "Or will you let Sage talk you into a sports car?"

Sage gave Ryo a look, but Mia laughed, leaning back into Halo's hand, which was once again steadying her. "I think I'll get another truck—something we can all fit in that doesn't make me look like a soccer mom. Sage can keep the flash and dash, as long as he lets me ride in it whenever I want."

"No arguments here. On either count," Sage said, and Mia smiled at him in the rearview.

When they got to the cabin, everyone got out of the CJ warily, looking at the friendly cabin with its overgrown front yard. "Feels like forever since we've been here," Cye remarked. "It looks so strange and..._normal_, doesn't it?"

"I'll go in first," Ryo said. "I mean, nothing's wrong, but..." Everyone else nodded and stood aside to let Wildfire through.

"I'm going to check the rest of the grounds," Sage said. "Just to be sure. Won't be long."

"Don't go too far," Mia said, casting an apprehensive glance towards the woods. "Don't go near the…"

Sage nodded. "Promise," he assured her, before she could say, _Don't go near the well_.

* * *

Despite the air of tension surrounding the cabin, Sage wasn't worried that they'd find anything out of the ordinary. What he'd really wanted was a chance to see for himself in his own element—the clear light of day—that everything was all right. So given over to his mood was he as he explored the area surrounding the cabin in a wide circle that he didn't hear the pad of paws behind him until they hit his shoulder, sending him sprawling to the ground.

Sage hit the dirt on his back without even enough breath to scream. He cursed himself for twenty different kinds of an idiot, memories of the demon whirling in his head like a grotesque carousel. Ryo and the others had said it was dead, but he hadn't looked, he hadn't _seen_ it—

But the paws that pressed against his chest had their claws sheathed, and the muzzle that leaned toward his face was closed over sharp teeth. A familiar face—

Sage let his head fall back to the dirt. "White _Blaze_. You scared the _hell_ out of me, boy. What's wrong? Let me up."

But the tiger remained still. He wasn't giving Sage his full weight, but the paws on his chest pressed just hard enough to be menacing, and a warning growl issued from his throat.

Sage struggled half-heartedly, confused. "White Blaze? What's up?" The longer he stared into the tiger's serious gaze, he recognized where he'd seen it earlier—on Ryo.

Lifting his hands, which had remained free the entire time, Sage ruffled the big cat's fur reassuringly. "It's okay. If I break her heart, you have my express permission to devour my internal organs and keep my bones for chew toys. All right?"

This statement was rewarded with a big, sloppy lick of the tiger's broad tongue, and he lifted his paws from the blond boy's chest, satisfied.

Dusting himself down, Sage got to his feet. He hadn't gone far; the walk back was short, the tiger trotting happily out ahead, eager to see the rest of his friends now that his obligation had been fulfilled. He made a beeline for Mia as soon as they returned to the cabin, butting his head against her hip. She laughed, caressing his broad head. "Hey, you! Where've you been? I bet you had a nice quiet night after we were gone. Hope you rested up for the run home!"

"All clear?" Sage asked, joining his friends in the front yard as Ryo reemerged from the cabin.

"All set," Wildfire said happily, giving them a thumbs-up. "No bad guys in sight, and all our stuff's still here."

Mia uttered a soft exclamation, looking at Sage. "You are filthy!" she said, licking a finger and dragging it across his cheek. "You weren't even gone long enough to get this dirty!" Glancing down at White Blaze, she noticed the twigs and grit in his fur as well. "You too! What were you doing out in the woods?"

"Having a man-to-man talk," Sage said. White Blaze snuffled and Sage corrected himself as he slipped into the cabin to wash up. "Tiger-to-man, rather."

Mia crooked her fingers into hooks, as if she were about to pounce. "White Blaaaaze," she sang. "Someone's getting a _bath_ when we get home."

Ears standing up at the mention of the hated activity, the tiger galloped away from her to hide behind Ryo, who chuckled, scratching his friend behind the ears. "She said the b-word, huh? Don't worry, pal. I got your back."

Mia helped Ryo secure the cabin while the other boys packed the cars, dusting down the tables and making the bed while Ryo shut the windows and made sure no one had left anything behind.

"I think we're all set," she said cheerfully, flapping her dustrag when Ryo emerged from the bedroom. Chuckling, she added, "You'd never guess what an adventure we had this week looking at this place."

Ryo opened his arms to his friend and she went gratefully into them for a hug. "You were amazing this week. We couldn't have done it without you."

Mia laughed into his ear. "It's all in a day's work for Team Ronin, right?"

Ryo chuckled and gave her a squeeze. "Just glad we ended the week the same way we started it—together."

Mia stepped back, one hand on his shoulder as she smiled at him. "We always will," she promised. "Come on, Wildfire. Ready to go?"

Together, they locked the cabin door, Mia handing him his duffel bag while shouldering her own. Kento hopped up onto the running board of the CJ-6 and thrust an arm through its open window to honk the horn. "Hey, Ryo! Wanna ride back to your apartment? I gotta go through the city to take these two home anyway." He hopped down and indicated Cye and Rowen with a jerk of his thumb.

"That sounds great, Ken." Hugging Mia once more, he slung his duffel into the car through the open window. Kneeling by White Blaze, he ruffled the tiger's fur. "Run safe, pal. Keep taking good care of Mia, O.K.? I'll come out to visit you guys real soon."

Kento yanked Mia to him and planted a wet kiss on her cheek. "I'll call you next week, gorgeous. Mama would love to see you at the restaurant soon."

Mai laughed, squeezing him back. "I'd love to. Tell your mother I'll bring my appetite."

"She'd be happier if you brought a _date_," Kento laughed, opening the CJ's door and getting behind the wheel.

"Wait, can I squeeze in the back with Rowen and Ryo—hey! Careful, Rowen!" Mia giggled as Rowen spun her in a graceful dance move before getting into the back seat. "I don't know if you heard, but my car died over the weekend in a demon attack, so I need to get to the train station."

Kento slammed the door as Ryo got into the back seat with Rowen and the bags. "Sorry, gorgeous. No room—car's packed full of Ronin Warriors."

Mia's mouth fell open in shock. "What! Kento, all _six_ of us have fit into your car this week."

"We didn't have all our bags in it then," Cye said, looping one arm around Mia's neck for a hug of his own. "You don't want to ride all the way back into the city on our laps, do you?"

"Yeah, ya can't fit, gorgeous," Rowen added from the back. "Ya need a ride from someone else."

Mia frowned playfully. "O.K., I can take a hint. Safe home, guys. Drive carefully, Kento!"

"Call me when you're home," Ryo said.

Kento honked the horn, putting the CJ in gear. "Alllll aboooooaaaard! Kento's CJ Express is leaving the station!"

Sage held up a hand in a send-off; White Blaze trotted out into the road to stare after them. Mia waved her hand in farewell, jogging a little ways after Kento's CJ-6 as it lurched off down the dirt road.

"They could have made room for me in that car," she said aloud. "What's the deal?"

White Blaze nudged her hip, turning her towards the answer, who was leaning against the hood of the Fairlady, watching her with eyes the color of the night that was already beginning to fall around them. Mia's pulse tapped excitedly in her veins, but she kept her walk toward him free-swinging and slow and tried to sound casual. "Don't you have to get back to Sendai?"

"It would be rude of me not to ensure a lady got home safely," he answered just as casually, but the familiar words were borne on the barest curve of his mouth in a smile.

"Let me guess," she teased as she got closer. "They all drew straws, and you lost."

"No." The smile faded just a touch and the twinkle in his eye was swept away by something deeper, fiercer. Boldly, he reached out, wrapping strong fingers around her waist and pulling her gently closer, against the car's left fender. "I won."

Speaking was so difficult when she knew their mouths could be put to better use than words. "There's a train station a few miles from here," she ventured, remembering what he'd told her before they'd split up to trap the demon—it seemed so long ago. "You could drive me. We could…talk."

"I could drive you to the train station," Sage agreed, letting go of her waist and taking her hands in his, fingers curling around hers. "Or…I could drive you home."

She blinked; she'd never dreamed of such an offer. "But…it's out of your way!" she said in astonishment.

"There's nowhere I have to be," he said. "We won't get in till quite late, though."

Heart beating hard against her breastbone, Mia issued an offer of her own. "You could stay. You could sleep in your old room," she said, warming to the idea, even though there were a few other rooms she was imagining him in. "Like old times."

Sage's fingertip caressed the sensitive valleys between her knuckles, his eyes softening to dusk-pale instead of winter-cool. "These aren't old times. This is something new. Something _now_."

Mia's blood bubbled with excitement, and the nagging wound of when-do-I-get-to-be-happy felt as though it were finally knitting together. Because _now_ was the answer, wasn't it?

"How long before you _do_ have to be somewhere?" she asked. "Long enough to…hang out…for a little bit?"

He smirked. "Hanging out's what friends do. I had something else in mind."

At the sight of that smile, she couldn't resist teasing him a little. "So after all that, you're saying you _don't_ want to hang out with me after all, is that it?"

Sage's hands let go of hers, one clutching at her hip, the other pressing against the small of her back, and just like that she was trapped in the cage of his embrace. Laughter faded as her senses filled with him, no longer half-grasped fantasies but the reality of his nearness, those violet eyes darkening with emotion. Her hands slid up his chest, feeling his heartbeat accelerate at her touch.

"I want…" he whispered huskily.

He didn't need to tell her what he wanted, not in words. The answer was given as he closed the distance between them, drugging her with a slow, open-mouthed kiss. It wasn't like the other times—there was no desperation, no doubt, no hurry. There was simply the two of them together, a deluge of feeling and a delicious promise of more to come.

Sage's gaze was hazy with heat when they broke apart, his tongue flickering over his lips as if he wanted to savor the kiss. "That should hold me over until we get to Toyama," he purred, but his arms stayed tight around her.

Mia reached for him, brushing his hair back off his face so she could look into his eyes. "It's a long drive," she said softly. "Don't you want one for the road?"

Sage's lashes slid to half-mast. "Yes," he said, leaning in to whisper it against her mouth. "Please."

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Well, that's the end *^_^* When I moved down South for a year in 2007 in an attempt to reduce my craziness (which had gotten out of control at that point), the first job I could manage to get was as a secretary for a call center. If you didn't count hearing the wild stories the workers gave me for being late every morning (one guy called us to bail him out of jail when he was caught boosting a car, and one woman showed up looking like lasagna with teeth and told me matter-of-factly that she was late because she'd gotten into a fight with her live-in boyfriend), it was _extremely_ boring. One day I let my mind wander so far that it came back with a few ideas for stories, and in a black spiral notebook (and later, a blue marble one) that still lives on my bookshelf, I began writing the notes that would eventually become this story. While my insanity shrunk that year down in Dixie, this story didn't—like the inugami itself, it far outgrew my original expectations, and I couldn't be prouder of it.

I shouldn't have to tell anyone that the opening lyric for this chapter is by **Simple Minds**. I'm sure you remember it from the film that made it famous, John Hughes' masterpiece _The Breakfast Club._

_**If you go out in the wood**_**s _today_: **I was so pleased to see Detectives Kozu and Shiga again. I hadn't expected to! Take care of yourselves and your girls, Detectives—it was such a pleasure working with you, and I hope to see you again someday! When Detective Shiga is waiting for his ex-wife (soon to be wife again) Karen, he finds the book of Hiro's research that Mia pushed to have published. Its title is derived from the lyrics of a song that always scared me as a child, _**The Teddy Bears' Picnic**_. I have no idea why it's supposed to be a children's song—I find the damn thing chilling.

_**I saw Lon Chaney Jr. walking with the queen**_**:** Tired of waiting for the story to break, the _Sun-Times_ predictably makes something up to explain the demon attacks—they decide it's a werewolf, which is probably why they included pictures of **Lon Chaney, Jr.** from his 1941 movie, _The Wolf Man._

**A special thank-you: **I thought about saving this for my 100th fic, but I'm so very pleased that _Cross My Heart, and Hope To Die _has been posted in its entirety that I've decided now's as good a time as any. I really, really need to thank the real hero of this story, and indeed _all_ the creative work I do—the most magnificent horse in the universe, **Cloudwalker**. Cloudy has been both my best friend and my beta-reader for as long as I've been writing fanfiction, and here in 2011, that's ten years. Which, let me tell you, is a _long_ time to put up with _my_ nonsense. *chuckles* Some people treat friendship like a contract, some treat it like a toy; Cloudwalker is one of the few who's a friendship _soldier. _When a monster ate my heart in 2003 and I refused to leave my room for either college classes or doctor's appointments, Cloudwalker was there to tell me to stop acting like a soap actress and get out of bed. When I had a nervous breakdown in 2006, Cloudy was the _only_ person I knew—friend _or _relative—who never treated me like a mental patient. When I was exiled to the South for that year in 2007, she remained in radio contact with me and issued me a hero's welcome when I returned triumphantly home. When I'm unreasonable, she's the first one to tell me that I'm acting like an ass. When someone attacks me, she's the first one to say it's on like _Red Dawn_ and ask me whose face we need to rearrange. Cloudwalker is U.S. Secret Service contact Ingrid Hunnigan. She's Batgirl as the Oracle. She's the Twelfth Doctor. If I had a talking skull that held all the world's magical knowledge and was funnier than I am, Cloudy would be the voice behind its glowing orange eye-lights. Cloudy has had my six through one hundred fanfics, three blogs, six terrible jobs, three apartments, and five boyfriends ranging from the irritating to the malignantly ridiculous. And when I go septic and need to bloodlet all my mental imbalances onto paper as stories, she's the one that hacks through their dangerous terrain with a machete and turns them into something fit for human consumption, _on top_ of sharing my every triumph and problem. You can't get any tougher than Cloudwalker without actually being a Highlander. I'm actually annoyed that I've never had occasion to take a bullet for Cloudy, because I honestly can't think of anything else I could do to properly repay her for being the coolest friend ever.

As I mentioned earlier, another special thank-you and **bonus points** go to my squad of ultimate badasses—the lovely, talented ladies of **Team Ronin**:

- Thanks to **Max the Bish Deliverer** for her constant encouragement and the amusing bits of intelligence she brings back to the Think Tank. That girl ought to have a Purple Heart just for wading through the evils of internet fandom and bringing home the bloody trophies to show us. Keep stacking them up, Hellraiser, and Scarlett will knock them down!

- If you're more in the mood for Special Ops, look no further than **Ally W.**, who has the distinction of being brave enough not only to tackle fic about the OVAs, most notably _Message_, but to do it with style, flair and _research_. Anyfanbrat can write some brainless fic in which the guys have cell phones and dress in clothes from American Eagle Outfitters, but Ally knows exactly how to write a fic that contains a naginata, a Toshiba T3200, a Japanese holiday and an 8 ½ inch floppy disk and knock it out of the park.

- The ancillary characters will never be lonely with an author like **Seinasu **around. She knows how to handle the subtle relationships between them with surgical precision, and I've never seen better tributes to a character like Luna, or to a romance that is all but neglected in the RW/YST canon, the deep bond between Mukara and Naria. These are the character studies we should be seeking out to give us new insight into the story we love so well—what happens behind the scenes with the characters we're so fond of.

- **Boggy**, who rules the Think Tank when it comes to knowledge of our beloved Ronin—most notably Sage—has the distinction of writing what I would call Best Marriage Proposal By a Ronin In a Fanfic (_An Analysis From Point A to Point B._) Rarely if ever do I see the care and attention to detail that she puts into her stories, regardless of fandom. Quality, not quantity, is the watchword, and it shows in every piece she posts. I only wish more writers cared so much about the craft!

These ladies are _good_ at what they do, and what they do is great fun. Go check them out, right here at FFNet.

Lastly, as always, this story wouldn't have gone anywhere without the support and encouragement from you, the readers. I only hope you enjoyed this even half as much as I did. I had so much fun writing and sharing this story, and it's thanks to all of you—always thanks to you.


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